


Paroxysmic

by Laurawrzz



Series: Destiny [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Babies, Children, Christmas, Comedy, Dark Character, Doctor Whump, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hospitals, Illnesses, M/M, Memories, Miscarriage, Multi, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Pregnancy, Romance, Time Travel, Tragedy, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 19:12:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 57,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4111918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a happy Christmas in the company of Torchwood, the Doctor's two-year-old daughter suddenly falls ill and is taken to a UNIT hospital. But very soon unexplained deaths of children in the hospital begin to occur and cannot be explained...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's Kissmas! Part One

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slightly edited version of this story, which was originally posted in 2012 on FF.net when I was A strange 19-year-old. Second in the "Destiny" series, but I guess you could probably read it as a standalone!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torchwood does Christmas, and the Doctor has to make a special effort to fall in with human tradition.

It was Christmas Eve in Torchwood, and the sound of the TARDIS erupted in the Hub at around 6pm. Ten seconds later the door opened and the Doctor stepped out, and was immediately greeted by Father Christmas standing there, all dressed up and looking very merry indeed.

“Merry Christmas!” Father Christmas boomed, arms akimbo, bouncing on his heels with his large and suspiciously soft and pillow-like belly bobbing up and down.

The Doctor stopped dead in surprise, staring at him, quite confused. “... Hello, Santa,” he finally said, raising an eyebrow.

“Hello, Doctor!” Father Christmas replied happily. “Where is little Leah?”

“She's, err...” He gestured vaguely behind himself with a thumb, and stared a little more at Father Christmas. “... What are you doing, Jack?”

“I'm not Jack, I'm Father Christmas!” the man told him enthusiastically, and the TARDIS door swung open again to reveal Rose standing there with two-year-old Leah beside her, holding her hand.

Rose snorted with laughter at the sight of Santa, as Leah let go of her hand and moved forward to greet this strange new man.

“Hello, I'm Father Christmas!” Father Christmas said in a deep voice. “And you must be little Leah! Have you been good this year, Leah?”

Leah blinked slightly, looking up at her parents, her mother was obviously trying not to burst out laughing whilst her father stood there with his arms folded with an eyebrow raised. She then looked back at Father Christmas, and frowned slightly. “Unka Jack?” she asked.

Her mum squeaked a little more, trying desperately not to laugh out loud.

“I'm not Uncle Jack, I'm Father Christmas!” he told her happily.

“No, you Unka Jack,” Leah insisted.

“No, it's Father Christmas!” the Doctor suddenly said, bounding forward to stand in front of the holiday man himself, shaking his hand with both of his, vigorously. “Oh, this is such an honour, sir! I thought you'd have been busy with all the presents!”

“Yeah!” Rose continued. “I mean all the way from Lapland just for Leah? You're so great!”

“Well, I couldn't go this Christmas without seeing my favourite girl in the world!” Father Christmas replied happily, ruffling Leah's hair.

She patted it down, indignant. “Can I ask a questin', peas?” Leah wondered.

“Anything for little Leah!” Father Christmas told her, bending down onto one knee in front of her. He probably would have fallen over if the Doctor hadn't surreptitiously caught him.

"How you go all round a world in one night?"

“That's a very good question, Leah!” Father Christmas boomed. “My reindeer pull my sled so fast you can't even see me!”

"So you go... umm... round a round like a light?"

“Yes, I do!” Father Christmas replied happily.

"Can I ask 'nover questin, peas?"

“Of course!”

"How you do all a planets? Or is it just my mummy's planet? Can you do a round a round all over like a light? Cos that not puzzle-ball.”

Father Christmas blinked slightly. “Well, umm...”

“This is the Earth Father Christmas,” the Doctor input from the side. “There's a whole load of them, every planet has their own special Father Christmas, Leah.”

“But...” Leah began again, forehead furrowed as she tried to work it out. "We not live on Mummy's planet. So how you know me? I could be 'nover place when you go round a round."

“Me and your Mum have signed you up to the Earth Father Christmas,” the Doctor told her.

“But what if I not here? I not get peasants.”

“Then this Earth Father Christmas will refer you to an overseas Father Christmas...” the Doctor replied, glancing at Father Christmas.

“Exactly!” Father Christmas said, still merrily beaming away.

"Oh. So you get a pennies,” Leah said. “You have a onion?"

“An onion?” Father Christmas repeated, confused.

“Yeah, onion.”

“I think she means a union,” the Doctor stage whispered.

“Do I have a union?” Father Christmas clarified, and Rose couldn't hold in her laugh any longer, burying her head into the Doctor's coat and shaking with the effort to suppress it. “Well, no, Leah, we Father Christmas' don't get paid, we do it for the happiness we feel giving presents to children like you!”

“But what 'bout the um... um... the helpings fings. The elves. They get a pennies?”

Father Christmas pursed his lips. “They do it for the happiness too, Leah!”

“But that not fair,” she protested. “They work all days to make peasants and not get paid a mim-nini-mum pennies, and you only work one days and, and that's not fair."

“Well I'll be sure to bring that to the next Elves Worker's Union meeting...” Father Christmas assured her.

“But...” Leah began again, still frowning.

“Oh, look at the time!” Father Christmas suddenly exclaimed, consulting an imaginary watch and getting to his feet with the aid of the Doctor. “I've really got to go! Good bye Leah, Doctor, Rose! Have a merry Christmas!”

And with that, Father Christmas waddled as fast as he could out of the Hub.

“Well that was nice of Father Christmas to pay a visit, wasn't it?” the Doctor asked Leah brightly, smiling.

Leah nodded, if a little absently, reaching up to take her daddy's hand. Rose had only just managed to stop laughing, still holding onto the Doctor and giggling uncontrollably.

“Come on, let's say hello to everyone,” he said, leading her to the sitting area across the room where everyone else had been watching the exchange with loony grins on their faces.

“Hello, Leah!” they all chorused.

“Hello,” Leah replied simply as her dad lifted her up and sat her down on the sofa, and then dropped down next to her. She clambered onto his lap, sucking her thumb and staring around at everyone. Then, a couple of seconds later she caught sight of the Christmas tree, giggled in delight and slid off her dad's lap to go to it.

“Don't wreck the tree!” the Doctor called, but Leah was already trying to climb up it to get to the angel on top, so he rapidly jumped up and jogged over to her, plucking her off of the dangerous leaning tree. Instead of crying, Leah got a little annoyed at that and tried to use him as a ladder to get to the top of the tree. They ended up having a small struggle until the Doctor ended up falling backwards onto the floor with a toddler sprawled on his chest.

The others laughed at that, just as the Hub door rolled back and Jack reappeared, dressed back in his usual attire. Almost immediately Leah lost interest in her dad and the tree, getting to her feet and toddling as fast as she could towards her uncle where he met her in a huge hug.

“Uncle Jack, Santa come!” she told him with a beaming smile.

“Oh, really?” Jack replied, grinning at the others across the room. “I hope you were nice to him.”

“Yeah!” she assured him with a beaming smile, just as the TARDIS suddenly made a vworping sound, alerting the Doctor to something. He glanced at Rose, then got onto his feet and ran into the blue box.

“And you didn't ask him any difficult questions?” Jack continued.

“Course not,” Leah replied innocently. Jack just laughed and lifted up the little girl, sitting her in the crook of his arm and carried her back over to the others to sit on the sofa beside Rose.

“Shouldn’t you all be somewhere else?” Rose wondered suddenly, looking at everyone else gathered there. “Like, with family and stuff?”

“You _are_ our family,” Jack said seriously, kissing the two-year-old he held affectionately on the forehead. She beamed and kissed him in return on the cheek.

“We all had our Christmases a few days ago,” Martha assured her.

“We wanted to be here to see you,” Mickey told her, smiling.

Rose smiled broadly in return. “Thank you.”

“Rose,” suddenly came a call from the direction of the TARDIS, and everyone looked up to find the Doctor standing there hovering over the threshold. “It’s your mum.”

* * *

 

“Rose and Leah are just coming,” the Doctor told the image of Jackie on the TARDIS screen. The picture was wavering and occasionally completely pixelating with the bad connection.

 _“I ‘ope you’re lookin’ after them!”_ she told him sternly, and the Doctor was relieved to find her eyes of death were slightly less effective when she was on a screen with a failing connection.

“Of course I am,” he replied indignantly.

_“I know you, you’ve got ‘em traipsing ‘round the Universe screamin’ for their lives!”_

“I’ve cut that down to three times a week,” the Doctor muttered sarcastically, but thankfully before Jackie could react, Rose appeared beside him holding Leah.

“Hey, Mum,” Rose said, smiling.

 _“Hello, sweetheart, and hello Leah!”_ Jackie said happily, smiling in return. _“How are you two?”_

“We’re fine!” Rose replied, and then looked at Leah. “Say hello to your granny, Leah.”

“Hello,” she said, waving and smiling, but mostly looking confused.

“Leah?” the Doctor wondered, looking at her confused expression. “You remember granny, don’t you?”

Leah looked at him, then back at the screen. “Yeah. Hi, Granny, how you?”

 _“I’m fine, thanks, Leah,”_ Jackie replied with a beaming smile. _“Your Daddy tells me it’s Christmas?”_

“Yeah,” Leah replied, nodding. “Not Kissmas for you, Granny?”

 _“No,”_ Jackie answered. _“It’s July here!”_

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Leah said seriously.

Jackie laughed at her incredibly apologetic tone. _“That's okay, sweetheart. I hope you get lots and lots of presents.”_

“Yeah,” Leah assured her, beaming with her hand twisting in her shirt. “Santa came and I was nice to him so he get me lots of peasants. I fink.”

Suddenly the screen blipped in its picture, and the pixelation got worse.

“Sorry, Jackie, we're losing you,” the Doctor said, trying to adjust the connection but it didn't seem to be having any effect.

Jackie nodded at that. _“You 'ave a really good Christmas, Leah, okay sweetheart? I love you all.”_

“We love you too, Granny,” Rose said, sounding a little quiet.

_“Bye, Rose love. You take care of yourself. You too Leah, don't you two let Daddy mess you about, all right?”_

Leah was still smiling broadly. “No, he's not. Bye, Granny,” she said, waving.

“Bye, Granny,” the Doctor said, waving as well.

“Bye, Mum,” Rose muttered.

_“Bye!”_

The picture fizzled out, and Jackie was gone for another few months at least until another connection could be made to the parallel world.

The Doctor looked at Rose, then at Leah. “Why were you looking so confused?”

“She all time on TARD-y screen, Daddy,” Leah pointed out, her brow furrowing again as she pointed at the monitor. “Does she live in there?”

He laughed. “No, Leah.”

“Okay,” she replied, as if that answered every question she could possibly ever have on the subject. “I'm hungry.”

“How about you run back into Torchwood and demand some food from Uncle Jack?” the Doctor suggested.

“Okay!” Leah replied happily, dropping out of her Mum's arms and running back out the door. The moment she was gone, the Doctor turned to Rose and gathered her into a much-needed hug, kissing her.

“Okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rose muttered, but didn't move away from the hug. “I just miss her.”

“I know,” he replied, kissing her again. “I'm sorry.”

Rose looked at him. “Oh, don't be like that, we went through this already. Not your fault, yeah? Now c'mon, we've got Christmas,” she flipped to a broad smile, pulling back and wiping with the cuff of her sleeve at unfallen tears. “You clear on the plan?”

“Yep,” the Doctor nodded. “And let's not get Leah to leave out mince pies for Santa, they did a fit in my stomach last time.”

* * *

 

It turned out Jack's food plan was to have everything the Doctor had in the TARDIS and hang out in the big living room. Thankfully the Doctor had thought to stock up on food just a few weeks before so they were drowned in snacks and drinks with the big TV on.

“Where is Santa now, Daddy?” Leah asked, indicating the atlas open on the table amongst in the throng of conversations everyone was having between themselves.

“Ooo, err...” He checked the time, pulling the atlas onto his lap. “7 o'clock... He's probably just finished the east side of Africa and is going back up north; Ukraine, I reckon,” he told her, indicating the country with his finger.

“We get Santa's food all done now?” she asked.

“Yep,” the Doctor replied, closing the atlas and getting off the sofa, before taking Leah's hand to lead her into the kitchen.

“Milk and minz pie,” Leah demanded, pulling open the cupboard to get the box of mince pies.

“Oh, I don't think Santa really likes mince pies, Leah,” the Doctor told her seriously.

“Yes, he does,” Leah insisted, stretching on her tip-toes to try and reach the box.

“Uncle Jack had a chat earlier with him on the way out, apparently he's not big on mince pies,” the Doctor told her after he'd poured the milk, moving to the cupboard to look through. “Who knew that! Oh, you know what he'd absolutely _love?”_

He pulled out a packet of banana chip biscuits, his eyes suddenly glowing with pure delight.

Leah stared at him. “Are you sure?”

“Very,” the Doctor assured her, taking out about six from the packet and moving to the plate on the table.

“He not get mad at me?” Leah demanded of him.

“Oh, definitely not!” the Doctor replied, considering the six on the plate, then the packet in his hand. After a few moments he shrugged and pushed out the entire contents of the packet onto the plate. “There. That'll make him very, very happy!”

“Okay,” she said, reaching up to take the plate of twenty biscuits as her dad took the glass of milk. They carried them back into the living room where everyone was still chatting and laughing.

“Oh, no mince pie for Santa this year?” Martha wondered, noticing them.

“Yeah, you were talking to him earlier, weren't you, Jack?” the Doctor said, staring at the ex-Time Agent in question. “Said he didn't like mince pies.”

“Oh yeah!” Jack agreed, nodding. “He doesn't like mince pies. Spends days on the toilet afterwards!”

Leah giggled at that, making sure the plate and glass were in precisely the right place on the table.

“But he _really_ likes banana chip cookies,” the Doctor said seriously, staring at the plate.

“He _really_ does,” Rose agreed, gazing at the plate stacked with a mountain of biscuits.

“Where is Santa now, Daddy?” Leah asked, gazing up at him.

“Let's have a look,” the Doctor said, dropping onto the sofa and picking up the atlas once more. “Oh, he's probably gone north, now, up in Finland,” he said, pointing at the map. “He'll be down in Europe soon, you'd better get to bed.”

“Okay,” she said, reaching up to be taken. He obliged.

“Night night,” Leah said to the others, giving a wave.

“Night, Leah!” they all chorused.

* * *

 

“Daddy, Mummy,” Leah began as they tucked her up into bed ten minutes later.

“Yeah?” the Doctor asked.

“What the bestest Kissmas you had?”

“Hmm,” the Doctor considered that for a moment. “Need to think about that. Mum?” he asked, looking at Rose.

“Oh, easy. Mine was the Christmas that Daddy regenerated,” Rose replied, smiling broadly. “I didn't really understand regeneration so when Daddy changed his face I didn't really know what was happening. Also he was so tall and bony and like a piece of paper...”

Leah giggled and the Doctor had a look of mock affront.

“But then we saved the world, and we stood outside in the evening on Christmas Day, holding hands, looking up to the stars. Then I fell in love with your Daddy all over again, and I realised I wanted to be with him forever.”

“Aww,” the Doctor said, somewhat condescendingly. Rose rolled her eyes at him.

“Daddy?” Leah asked.

“Me? Oh, well, it was two years ago, you were two-months-old. We took you back to Torchwood to see Uncle Jack and everyone. You were so little and wide-eyed, and when I said your name you looked up at me... you'd recognised your name. Your little eyes blinked a few times and locked on mine and you smiled this beautiful little smile... It was the first time you'd looked at me like that, and right then, everything became so clear to me. I knew that you were the most precious thing in the universe and I was never going to let you ever be sad. Then of course Uncle Jack ran in like an idiot, ruined the moment completely, and you started crying because he scared you. But that was my favourite Christmas.”

Leah looked at him and smiled, and he grinned in return and kissed her, hugging her tightly for a few moments before finally forcing himself to pull away and allowing Rose to say good night.

“Night,” Leah told them both as her mum tucked her in.

“Goodnight, sleep well,” Rose said, giving her a final kiss before both parents left out the door.

* * *

 

“Oi!” the Doctor interrupted as he found Jack tucking into the stack of banana chip biscuits, marching over and yanking the plate away from him. “They're for Santa only.”

“Sorry, Santa,” Jack replied, grinning as the Doctor began to munch his way through the mountain. “So what's tonight's plan?”

“I'm going to get up at three and...” the Doctor began through a mouthful of biscuit, spraying crumbs everywhere.

Rose quickly slammed a hand onto his mouth. “He's gonna get up at three and get the presents from whatever secret place he put them, put everythin' under the tree and in the stockings, come back to bed, wake me up at nine, then I'm gonna get up Leah while the Doctor sorts breakfast then we'll eat, then open the presents at around ten in here.”

“I'll be there,” Jack assured them, and then suddenly noticed something on the table. “Ooo! Hypervodka!”

“He noticed it. You owe me a fiver,” Rose said, grinning and digging her partner in the ribs with her elbow.

Everyone laughed at that, except for Jack, who didn't seem to notice as a shot of Hypervodka was already heading down his throat.

 

 


	2. It's Kissmas! Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor continues his efforts to do Christmas, as Jack struggles with a hangover. Martha recieves a call from UNIT requesting the Doctor's help.

**2:59am** the clock on the bedside table read when the Doctor opened his eyes from his timed hibernation. He blinked a few times, just thinking for a moment before he finally recalled _why_ he was getting up at 3am.

After a few moments of just lying there in the dark, he grunted and made to get up but quickly realised Rose was draped over him, fast asleep. He was completely trapped underneath her.

With absolute precision he carefully rolled her onto her back, managing to get his legs and arm free before he finally made it onto his feet. He moved across the room still with his head in a bit of a fog and had just opened the door when a sudden, bitingly cold draft abruptly reminded him he was completely naked.

On the second attempt, he made it out of the door in boxers, pyjama trousers and a dressing gown. He'd hidden all the presents in the gym (nobody ever went there apart from Jack) so he picked them up on the way towards the living room.

As he entered and flicked on the light, he realised the room was a complete mess. With a hefty sigh he decided he should probably clean it up first.

It was nearly 4am by the time he finished and had begun to stuff the stockings. No, he wasn't really into these human celebrations; Christmas, New Year's, Pancake Day, Easter, Hallowe'en, Guy Fawke's night... But Rose had insisted on at _least_ Christmas. And he'd been very easily swayed on Pancake Day of course. But that was it. And in exchange for those, she'd let him celebrate the Gallifreyan festival Anmers-Tonastide in March, which he appreciated.

But he had to admit, he'd been sceptical at first about Christmas – he'd never really thought much of it – not until his regeneration at Jackie's all those years ago. Then it had become something a bit special. Plus it was worth it just to see Leah's smile in the morning when she had all her presents. So he really didn't mind; it was just the mince pies he had the problem with.

He finished the stockings, and moved back to the tree to get out the presents.

“Daddy?”

He froze instantly, his head instantly whipping upwards to find the girl standing in the doorway in her pyjamas, staring at him.

“Hello, Leah,” he finally said, a million mad reasons for being the one here putting the presents under the tree rapidly flying through his mind...

"Daddy, why you put peasants under the tree?" she asked, beginning to piece the clues together...

“Oh, I met Santa at the door! He was running a bit late so he asked me if I could put them under the tree for him,” he replied, gazing at the girl to see how she took that....

And to his complete relief, she instantly accepted it. “Okay,” she said.

He internally breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at her seriously. “Were you staying up to see if you could catch him?” he wondered.

“No,” Leah answered a little too quickly, tugging on her ear. Instantly the Doctor knew she was lying even before she turned a bright shade of pink, as tugging on the ear when lying seemed to be a genetic thing she'd inherited from him.

He gazed at her seriously, and within five seconds she caved.

“Daddy, peas don't tell Santa!” she wailed, bursting into tears. "Daddy, peas don't tell Santa. I don't want him take my peasants away!"

“Hey, hey, hey,” the Doctor said quickly, holding out his arms. She instantly ran to him for a hug. “I _will_ have to tell Santa, it’s standard protocol, but don't worry, he'll let you off with a caution. Just don't do it again, all right?”

“Okay,” she sobbed as he pulled back and wiped at her eyes.

“Now go back to bed and go straight to sleep, okay?” he said, kissing her forehead.

“Okay,” she repeated, then obediently toddled off out the door.

The Doctor breathed a huge sigh of relief, gave himself a mental pat on the back for a crisis well-avoided, then continued putting the presents under the tree.

* * *

 

“Daddy. Mummy. Daddy. Mummy. Daddy. Mummy. Daddy. Mummy. Daddy. Mummy.”

Rose eased open her eyes the next morning to find the toddler girl sitting in the middle of the bed prodding her parents. The moment Leah saw her mum awake she beamed happily.

“Mummy, get up, is Kissmas,” she said.

Rose's brow furrowed, turning her groggy head to the bedside clock. **6:13am** , it read.

“Bloody hell,” she muttered, hand going to her head. “Leah, it's six o'clock...”

“Is Kissmas,” Leah repeated, seemingly completely oblivious to the six o'clock factor.

“Leah,” came the tired voice of her father from the other side of the bed, and two sleepy eyes emerged from under the covers to look at her under a complete mess of hair. Wordlessly he pulled back the cover, took her under her armpits and placed her under the cover between him and Rose. “There. Have a snooze,” he  murmured, repositioned himself, and closed his eyes again.

“But is...” Leah began.

“Six o'clock, “ Rose completed tiredly, turning over and closing her eyes again. Then after a few moments she opened them again, and sat up. “Well, that's it, I'm awake now.”

“Kissmas?” Leah wondered.

“Yep,” Rose replied, and Leah scrambled out of bed again looking very excited.

“When we open a peasants?” Leah asked.

“Not until...” Rose began, and was going to say ten, but then realised that would mean trying to delay Leah for four whole hours. “Oh god, umm... Look, let's have breakfast first. Go wait in the kitchen, yeah?”

Leah nodded, and ran out the door.

Rose sighed and looked at her alien partner, who was lying there on his front with his arms spread-eagled, his hair absolutely everywhere. He _really_ needed a haircut.

“Doctor?”

“Mmm?” he murmured.

“Y'know, we forgot a golden rule of bein’ parents.”

“What?”

“You don't wake kids up at Christmas, they wake up _you.”_

* * *

 

“Leah,” Jack groaned, hand on his head five hours later at 11am. “Try and keep it a little quieter for me, okay?”

“What wrong with your face, Unka Jack?” Leah wondered, pausing in playing with her brand new bear given to her by her parents and staring at the pale complexion of her Uncle.

“I'm just feeling a little sick, Leah,” Jack told her.

“Why you sick? Didja eat somefink bad?” Leah wondered.

“No,” the Doctor replied, leaning into the exchange. “He didn't eat something bad... He... Hmm. Do you remember that time you ran off on Jeffer Major and you were so thirsty that you drank that swamp water thinking it looked like chocolate milkshake?”

Leah pulled a face. “Made me sick.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor said, nodding. “It's like that. Except what Uncle Jack drank wasn't full of radioactive waste. But it pretty much amounts to the same thing.”

“Oh,” Leah said, looking at her Uncle Jack sitting there with his head in his hands. “Unka Jack, you eat lazative. Daddy say lazative help when you drink somp water.”

“Thanks,” Jack grunted, then pulled a face and ran out the door to get to the nearest bathroom.

The Doctor snorted with laughter, then looked back at Leah. “So, what are you calling your new bear?”

“Dunno,” Leah said with a sniff, holding the bear in both hands in front of her.

“Well, is it a boy or a girl?” the Doctor prompted.

“Is girl, cos it not got a...”

“Yes,” the Doctor cut over her before she could get any further. “Please don’t eavesdrop on Uncle Jack again. It's a girl, so what are you going to call her?”

“Umm...” Leah thought for a moment, looking around the room for inspiration. “Lampie,” she finally said, eyes resting on the lamp in the corner.

The Doctor followed her gaze, and raised his eyebrows. “Lampie?” he repeated.

Leah thought for a moment again. “No, I no like Lampie.”

“What's goin' on?” asked Rose's voice as she came in the doorway, taking a seat on the floor next to the Doctor.

“We're naming Leah's new bear,” the Doctor told her.

“Oh, well is it a boy or a gir-”

“Girl,” the Doctor interrupted swiftly.

“Okay, how about... Emily? Or Betty?” Rose tried.

“No,” Leah said, still staring at the bear. “I dunno.”

“Well, there's no rush,” the Doctor assured her. “We can think about it over lunch.”

Leah seemed to mimic a meerkat at the sound of food, jumping to attention instantly. “When is food comin'?”

“Soon,” the Doctor assured her.

“A big, huge Christmas lunch with turkey, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts, peas, pigs in blankets and a big Christmas pudding for after,” Rose replied, grinning. “Think you can manage it?”

“Yeah,” Leah replied indignantly.

“All of it?”

“Yeah.”

“We'll see,” Rose said, laughing. “So d'you like all your new presents?”

Leah nodded happily, hugging the unnamed bear tightly with all her other presents stacked around her. “Say thank you to Santa, peas?”

“Of course we will,” the Doctor replied, grinning and leaning forward to kiss her.

“I go help?” Leah asked, getting onto her feet and still clutching her bear.

“If you like,” the Doctor said, and she toddled as fast as she could out the door.

Rose looked at the Doctor and smiled. “Did you see her face when she got that necklace-making kit from Martha?”

The Doctor beamed. “Yep. Though that does mean we're gonna be on all fours in her room while she's crying trying to find her favourite bead and hoping she didn't swallow it.”

“Wouldn't have it any other way,” Rose replied, still smiling.

“Nah,” he agreed, and leaned forward to kiss her.

“Doc, seriously,” began a voice from the door, and they both looked up to see Jack standing there looking like Death. “D'you have some kinda... miracle alien hangover cure?”

“Yes. Why, d'you want some?” the Doctor replied nonchalantly.

Jack's jaw dropped. “You had that and you didn't tell me?”

“You didn't ask,” the Doctor replied simply as Rose giggled.

Jack sighed heavily, hand on head. “Can I have some, please?”

“Sure,” the Doctor replied, getting up and helping Rose onto her feet.

“I'm so out of practice,” Jack moaned. “I swear I used to be able to handle a bottle of Hypervodka.”

“Actually, it was three bottles,” Rose corrected.

“Was it?” Jack wondered, and groaned. “Oh god...”

“Should've filmed it,” Rose muttered as they made their way down the corridor to the infirmary.

“Why, what did I do?” Jack wondered, then thought about that. “Wait. Don't answer that.”

“It wasn't _that_ bad,” the Doctor assured him.

“Yeah,” Rose agreed. “It was kinda funny. At least, until that chihuahua got involved.”

“Oh god,” Jack muttered. “Don't tell me I did the chihuahua thing again?”

“Yep,” the Doctor replied, popping the 'p'.

“Oh god,” Jack said for the third time, and groaned a very long groan indeed.

* * *

 

“Another Christmas over with,” Rose supposed, leaning back on the sofa feeling so stuffed with food she was about to burst, but still working her way through the cocktail sausages regardless.

The Doctor was next to her, feeling equally as bloated, which, being a Time Lord, was quite a feat in itself. He shifted closer to her, wrapping an arm around her. “I like Christmas.”

“Yeah?” Rose asked, snuggling up against him closer.

“We had a holiday like Christmas on Gallifrey too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It was called Otherstide. It was tradition to stay in our houses on Otherstide eve and give presents to the children.”

“No Santa?”

“No.”

“Did you celebrate birthdays too?”

“No... well, my naming day, sort of like my birthday in a way, was actually _on_ Otherstide.”

Rose giggled. “That's like being born on Christmas Day. That kinda makes you Jesus.”

The Doctor laughed at that. “I never thought of it that way before.”

Rose smiled. “So what other holidays did you have?”

“Nothing exciting,” the Doctor assured her with a flippant wave of his hand.

She gazed at him for a moment, until he realised she was staring at him and he looked back at her. “What?”

“Tell me.”

“Well okay,” the Doctor said, clearing his throat and having a think. “There was Otherstide and Anmers-Tonastide, of course, then there was the Creation of the Web of Time, The Thirteenth Night, Intuitive Revolution Day, the Death of Omega, the Feast of Omega, and Rassilon's Flag Day... And a few more but they were like bank holidays.”

“Tell me more about Gallifrey?”

The Doctor looked at her, eyebrow raised, curious at her interest. “You're suddenly really interested,” he commented.

“Well, I never really wanted to ask before, what with your emoness and all that.”

“Emoness?” the Doctor repeated.

Rose laughed. “Tell me more about Gallifrey,” she repeated.

“Okay. D'you wanna hear a Time Lord joke?”

“Yeah?”

“What goes bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud?”

“I don't know, what goes bang thud a lot of times?”

“A Time Lord committing suicide."

Rose stared at him. “That's the best you've got?”

“What? That's funny!” the Doctor exclaimed, and looked at her expression again. “Okay, okay, I've got a better one. This'll floor you...”

* * *

 

"… Never trust a venusian shanghorn with a perigosto stick!" were the words Martha heard the Doctor exclaim happily as she entered the living room, finding the Doctor and Rose sat on the sofa with the Doctor laughing hysterically and Rose looking somewhat confused.

After a few moments the Doctor stopped laughing, and looked at Rose.

“Wow, you're hard to please,” he muttered, then noticed Martha's presence. “Hey, Martha.”

“Guess what Mickey got me for Christmas!” Martha said happily, holding up a digital camera.

“You're gonna take a photo, aren't ya?” Rose realised, instantly hiding her face.

“Oh, come on just one!” Martha pleaded. “Please?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor said, nudging Rose and getting into position for the photo. “Just one.”

“But I haven't got any make up on,” she whined.

“You're pretty without it, honestly,” the Doctor assured her.

“You _have_ to say that, you wake up to it every morning,” Rose countered.

“No, I mean it,” he insisted.

“Yeah, and he'd know,” Jack's voice suddenly said from the doorway.

“What?” the Doctor asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah, what?” Rose wanted to know.

“Maybe now's not the time to mention it,” Jack began with a shrug. “But I think it needs to finally be said... If you've ever consulted the back catalogue of the Doctor's companions, there weren't exactly a lot of uglies in it.”

“Is that true?” Rose asked with her jaw dropped, staring at the Doctor.

“Oh, that means you think I'm pretty!” Martha realised, grinning. “Thanks.”

“I'm not having this conversation,” the Doctor said simply, staring at the wall.

“He thinks I'm pretty too!” Jack said, laughing. “Hey, Doc, which girl was the one with the skimpy leather outfits?”

“Leela,” the Doctor muttered.

“And the one with the _massive...”_

“That was Peri and I didn't choose her because of that!” the Doctor snapped.

“We're embarrassin' him, look, his ears have gone red,” Rose said, giggling.

“All men are men,” Martha supposed, laughing.

“Then there was that _killer_ blonde one...” Jack continued.

“How do you know so much about my companions anyway?” the Doctor wanted to know.

“I have the internet and a lot of time to kill.”

“Figures,” the Doctor muttered, just as Leah came toddling in clutching her bear.

“Leah! Hello!” the Doctor said quickly, scooping up the girl to sit her in his lap. “Let's all focus our attention on Leah!”

Martha just smiled. “Leah, would you like to be in a photo with Mummy and Daddy?”

“Okay!” Leah said happily, and after a few moments they all finally got into position for the photo; Rose quickly sorting her hair.

“Everyone say... silly sausages!” Martha said, and all three responded in kind. The camera clicked, and Martha showed them the photo.

Leah pointed at it and laughed happily, prompting a smile from everyone.

“Daddy, look funny,” she said, still laughing.

“Oi!” the Doctor exclaimed, grinning.

Suddenly Martha's phone rang. She pulled it out from her pocket and checked the caller, then she smiled apologetically. “Excuse me,” she said, and went out the door quickly.

The Doctor looked back at Leah. “Hey, have you named your bear yet?”

“Bundy,” Leah replied with a smile, hugging the bear tightly to her chest.

“That's a good name,” Rose replied, stroking the girl's hair as she felt too fat with turkey to lean forward to kiss her.

“Thanks,” Leah replied, and everyone laughed again before she yawned widely.

“Tired?” Rose asked.

She nodded, and reached up to be taken by her father.

He pulled a face. “I really can't get up.”

“Me either,” Rose agreed.

“Uncle Jack saves the day,” Jack said, swooping in to pick up the two-year-old. “Say night night to Mom and Dad.”

“Night,” Leah said shortly as Jack held her towards her bloated parents, who hugged and kissed her in turn, before Jack took her out the door to bed.

The Doctor and Rose were alone once more, feeling fat and slumped in front of the television. They snuggled up to each other again.

“We've got the night to ourselves,” Rose told him in a sexy growl, running a finger to hook in his tie and pull it even more down than it already was.

“I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, because I really can't do that right now,” the Doctor grunted.

“What am I thinkin' then?” Rose challenged.

“Sex?”

“Actually I was thinkin' let's just sleep here and not get up.”

“Okay, good idea,” the Doctor admitted, grunting and trying to reach up behind him for the blanket hanging on the back of the sofa.

“Doctor?” a voice asked again. It was Martha. “That was Colonel Mace.”

“Who?” the Doctor asked tiredly, managing to grab the blanket and throw it over himself and Rose.

“Mace. The Unit man from the Sontaran incident?” Martha prompted.

The Doctor frowned. “The saluting guy, kinda boring, wore a toupée?”

Martha blinked. “He didn't wear a toupée,” she contested.

“Well, he should have,” the Doctor said with a sniff as Rose giggled. “What did he want?”

“He's invited you to the Unit medical research facility tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“I'm not sure. They probably want you to identify something.”

“Fine,” the Doctor sighed.

“What is your problem with him?” Martha wondered seriously. “So what, he carries a gun, aren't you over that by now?”

The Doctor thought about that for a moment. “Have you ever really not liked someone or anything they did and not really known why?”

Rose giggled at that, and Martha just rolled her eyes.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” she said, and left just as Jack came back in.

“Leah's in bed,” he told them. “I'd better go.”

“Thanks,” Rose told him. “Night, Jack.”

“Night!”

Then they were alone again, and neither moved an inch for the entire night.

 


	3. The Attack of the Haircut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor causes anarchy in UNIT before he and his family leave Earth. Rose and Leah pin him into submission to get him to have a haircut.

“Thank you for coming, Doctor,” Colonel Mace said to the Time Lord as they stood in the entrance of a UNIT warehouse in Birmingham the next morning.

The Time Lord in question gave a brief, beaming smile, before his face dropped again. “You're welcome. What is this about?”

“Classified information,” Mace replied simply, glancing around at Rose standing beside the Doctor holding Leah in both arms. “I will reveal more inside, if you'd like to step this way.”

He moved through the door, showing his pass to the guard and press his hand to a scanner, then looked into a retina scanner. Martha, who was in front of the Doctor and Rose, did the same. The Doctor followed through with a swipe of Martha's key-card. Rose made to follow.

“I'm afraid we do not permit entry to civilians,” he said, very apologetically, holding up a hand before Rose could step over the line, “and most definitely not children.”

“I'm sorry?” the Doctor asked in disbelief, raising an eyebrow.

Mace shifted uncomfortably, pulling at his shirt collar as he looked back at the Doctor. “I'm afraid only you, Doctor Jones and I are allowed to enter.”

“I'm sorry,” the Doctor repeated, but in a completely different tone of voice. “It's kind of a package deal with this family.”

“Daddy?” the two-year-old girl asked quietly, reaching out a hand to her father.

“Doctor, it's okay, we'll wait,” Rose said quickly, looking between him and Martha.

“No, you won't,” the Doctor replied simply, leaping back over the gate he'd just passed through to stand next to her, then looked up at Mace again, folding his arms, waiting for a reaction.

Martha quickly stepped forward, seeing this about to take a turn for the worse. “Sir,” she began to a very awkward-looking Colonel. “If you permit entry to them, I will take full responsibility for their actions, the Doctor included.”

The Colonel tugged on his shirt collar again, obviously rapidly trying to make an impossible decision. “Well, all right,” he said, then turned and started walking towards the far door.

Martha shot the Doctor and Rose a smile, then beeped the key-card to let them through. The Doctor took hold of Rose's hand and they passed through to follow Mace.

* * *

 

They walked down white corridor after white corridor, with men in equally as white coats poking and prodding things Rose didn't even what to think about for too long on tables.

“So why do you need me?” the Doctor wondered.

“We have come across a disease we can't recognise,” Mace explained. “We wondered if you could identify it and advise us what to do with it.”

“Destroy it?” the Doctor wondered in a murmur, glancing at Rose and Martha who both giggled. They finally got to a white airtight door with a golden plaque on the front, saying **DISEASE CENTRE**. Mace swiped a card, and they all stepped through.

The room was filled with shelves and shelves of Petri dishes, all labelled with names and **DANGER HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE** stickers, contained in mini fridges with clear fronts. Rose glanced at the Doctor, whose eyes seemed to have widened to impossible size as he realised...

“Hold on,” he said, stopping and moving to one of the fridges. Rose followed, peering in to see a Petri dish with something fiendish-looking in the bottom. She looked at the label, and froze.

“Is that really...?” Rose wondered, but didn't feel the need to finish that sentence.

“Smallpox? Yes,” the Doctor replied, eyebrows lowering before scanning some more names along the shelves. “Ebola, E. coli, Bubonic Plague, Spanish Flu, Polio, all the Hepatitis', Malaria, Measles, Meningitis, Tuberculosis, Cholera, HIV, Typhoid, Leprosy...” He kept moving across the shelves, his eyes slowly becoming wider and wider... “All the cancer cells are in here, even ones you haven't come across yet... Wait, Lysony? Plamena? Petrifold Regression?” He stopped, looking at Mace. “You're not supposed to have these! Not for five billion years!”

Suddenly Rose's skin was crawling as though all the diseases had jumped right onto her... “I feel itchy,” she muttered and consciously scratched her arm, staring in horror at all the diseases sat in their Petri dishes and fridges around her and feeling extremely mortal. She held Leah a little tighter.

“Wait, oh, what've we got here... Klixan anti-Herilo? How exactly do you have that?” The Doctor was angry now, marching up to Mace and looking furious. “That's from a planet 578 light-years away and it dies out in three centuries, humans should never even come into contact with it!”

“I assure you, Doctor,” Mace said patiently. “They are all sealed and frozen. They are not allowed to be opened.”

“Then why have them?” the Doctor wanted to know. “Destroy them. If this little thing gets out...” He pointed to one he had addressed as something called 'Plamena' earlier. “It'll spread so fast you won't believe it! It'll probably kill about five billion people in less than three weeks and will severely disable around 1.5 billion more, this is an absolute killer.”

“They are not to be taken out of this room, we use them for research into cures, the dishes are never opened,” Mace repeated again, but even he seemed to be wavering in that slightly at the Doctor's words.

“If this got into the wrong hands... Biological warfare, Colonel Mace. I'm telling you to destroy them.”

“I can't do that, Doctor. Now I brought you here for a specific reason,” the Colonel suddenly seemed to steel himself, getting a little irate.

“You think I'm going to let this go?!” the Doctor snapped, gesturing around the room. “This is horrific! You can't learn anything from this! Just what is it with you humans and death? If you're not trying to avoid it you're craving it, if you're not craving it, you're intentionally causing it, and if you're not trying to intentionally cause it you're being stupid enough to do this!”

“Doctor, your advice has been taken into consideration, now let us please move on!” Mace snapped, quite annoyed now. He spun on his heel and suddenly there was a loud crash. Everyone turned to look in horror as they realised one of the shelves had broken and three fridges had fallen onto the floor....

“Get out!” the Doctor yelled quickly, pushing the others back to the door. They obeyed without question, running out the door before the Doctor slammed it closed behind the fleeing humans, leaving him in the Disease Centre alone.

He moved forward, checking which fridges had fallen. Ebola, Bubonic Plague and Plamena, but only the Ebola was out of its Petri dish. He wouldn't be affected by it, so he picked it up and sealed it back in the dish with his sonic, cleaned up the area and put everything back in its place. He then thought about leaving, but then decided he had a better idea than that.

* * *

 

It was precisely thirteen minutes before the Doctor appeared at the window, and gave a thumbs up. Rose sighed in relief.

“Tardis,” he mouthed, silenced by the door, pointing back in the direction they'd come.

Rose turned and left instantly as Colonel Mace started up in protests. Martha was torn for a moment between her superior and the Doctor's orders, and then finally turned and followed Rose back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor waited a few moments before opening the door with a hiss and a clunk to a quite angry Mace. He held up a silencing hand, and Mace instantly stopped talking.

“If you want to live, I wouldn't go in there for a while, you've got Ebola everywhere. Bye, Colonel,” he said, then waved and jogged to the TARDIS leaving Mace to stand there looking very confused and annoyed indeed.

* * *

 

The Doctor entered the TARDIS, and instantly Rose was in front of him.

“Are you okay?” she asked anxiously.

He nodded. “Fine,” he replied with a beaming smile.

“I can touch you, yeah?” Rose wondered. “Are you full of disease?”

He shook his head. “There's an in-built steriliser when you walk through the Tardis door, if you're carrying a contagious disease and go through it then you're not infectious anymore.”

“Phew,” she said, and frowned a little. “Let's not go back there.”

“Oh, I wouldn't worry,” the Doctor assured both Martha and Rose, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a clutch of Petri dishes in each hand. “Going to destroy these.”

Martha's jaw dropped at the sight. “My head is so going to be on the line for this,” she realised.

“I'm surprised at you,” the Doctor admitted, starting towards the Infirmary. They quickly all followed, Leah slipping off the chair and following behind.

“Me?” Martha asked.

“Yeah, you. You knew about this?”

“Of course, and I don't agree with it either, but it wasn't like I could do anything,” she protested. “It's way over my head.”

The Doctor didn't answer that as they reached the Infirmary. He moved straight to some strange red machine that looked a little bit like a microwave. He opened its door, drew all fifty-six Petri dishes out of his pockets, and then closed the door. He pressed a few buttons, the machine pinged, and suddenly the Petri dishes had gone.

“Disintegrated,” the Doctor supplied, reaching down to pick up Leah who was hovering around his legs. “We won't see them again.”

“Good,” Rose muttered, still feeling a little sick.

* * *

 

They dropped Martha off at Torchwood before the Doctor programmed to hover in the vortex. He turned to his family, a beaming smile on his face.

“Where to?” he inquired. “I was thinking the shores of Baffur... or there's a fantastic little festival in this _tiny_ island on Tchpau Minor in the Winter with these _great_ little...”

“Get him!” Rose suddenly yelled, and to the Doctor's complete surprise he was suddenly engulfed by a woman and a toddler throwing themselves at him, making him topple backwards onto the floor with a yelp.

“Ow! What are you...”

“Leah! Press the button!” Rose ordered, and the girl did so, the TARDIS churning into life.

“Rose!” the Doctor protested, pinned to the floor by her. “Where...”

“We're goin' to the hairdresser's, Doctor.”

The Doctor's eyes instantly shot open, and seconds later he was struggling. “No! My hair's fine! We don't need to go to the hairdresser's!”

“Leah!” Rose called as she struggled to pin him down. “Sit on him!”

Leah obediently and swiftly plonked her bum on her father's chest. Despite this, he struggled even more.

“No! I'm not going!”

“We're going, Doctor!” Rose shouted as they landed with a thump.

“I'm not going!” he yelled. “You can't make me go!”

* * *

 

Ten minutes later the Doctor was sat in a hairdresser's in Aylesbury, a beach blonde bimbo currently trying to understand what haircut he wanted.

“So you want a buzzcut then or what?” the hairdresser asked, chewing her gum loudly with a facial expression which quite plainly showed a complete lack of any morsel of possible intelligence in her brain whatsoever.

“No!” the Doctor replied rudely. “I want it... you know, like it was before!”

“Oh for god's sake,” Rose muttered, hand on her head and blushing deeply as she could see absolutely everyone in the hairdresser's staring at them.

“Can I help?” a flaming red-headed man wondered, stepping forward to the commotion.

“Toby!” the Doctor exclaimed happily. “Can you do it like it was before?”

“Sorry, Doctor, I'm on lunch,” Toby replied apologetically. “I'll explain it to her, though.”

“Thank you!” the Doctor breathed as Toby took the woman to one side and spoke in undertones to her. Finally she seemed to get it and moved back, picking up the scissors and setting to work with the Doctor gripping onto the arms of his chair as though he'd just boarded a roller-coaster.

Toby rolled his eyes, panning around the room until he saw Rose and Leah sitting on the sofa trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

“Rose!” Toby greeted, hand in the hand as he moved towards them.

“Hey Toby,” Rose greeted, smiling. “God, I'm so sorry about him.”

“Very used to it,” Toby assured her, before his eyes drifted to Leah. Instantly they lit up. “Oh, is this little Leah?”

“Yeah,” Rose replied with a smile, stroking the girl's hair.

“I've never met you before,” Toby commented, extending a finger to Leah for her to shake. “You must be what... two-years-old, now?”

“Two ana bit,” Leah corrected.

Toby laughed. “Of course. Look, do you two want a drink or something?” He gestured behind him with a thumb where the Doctor was squeaking with every cut. “This is gonna take a while.”

“Yeah, please.”

“Back in a minute,” Toby said, and disappeared in the back door.

Rose looked again as the Doctor squealed again. He was watching his progressing haircut with unblinking eyes, absolutely rigid.

“So, you goin' anywhere on ya 'olidays?” the thick blonde woman asked in a droning voice.

“Nowhere!” the Doctor shrieked.

“I'm gonna go to Ibiza! Gonna be well awesome innit!”

“Good for you!” the Doctor yelped with utterly no conviction.

“We're all gonna get well drunk!”

“I really don't care!”

“Here you go,” Toby said with a smile as he returned with a tray with two glasses of orange squash on. “The one on the right is Leah's, I made it a little weaker for you, sweetheart.”

“Thank you,” Leah said with a smile, reaching forward to take the glass, but not before the blonde woman swooped in and took the drink.

“Oh, cheers Tom,” she said, starting to down it.

Toby flinched. “It's Toby. And that's Leah's!”

The woman completely ignored him, finishing the drink and resuming cutting the Doctor's hair.

Leah's lip was already starting to wobble in the sure sign of erupting tears.

Toby sighed. “I'm sorry, Leah, I'll get you another glass.”

“It's okay,” Rose said, giving her glass to Leah who eagerly sipped. “She can have mine.”

“No, really it's okay...” Toby insisted.

“Nah, besides, I get the feelin’ we're leaving in a minute,” Rose said with a giggle, pointing at the Doctor who was beginning to squirm as the woman plugged in an electric razor. She flicked it on, raised it to the Doctor's hair... and within a nanosecond the Doctor shrieked and jumped out of the chair as though he'd just been given a huge electric shock. He ripped off the coat, danced around for a bit trying to get rid of the hair on him grabbing his daughter in one arm and Rose's hand with the other before finally disappearing out the door with a yell of, “thanks, put it on the tab!”.

Toby looked at the bimbo who was standing there still with the razor going in her hand.

“Is he comin' back or somfink?” she asked dumbly, and then suddenly frowned. She was sweating, she realised... But how was she...

Suddenly a massive pain ripped through her insides as her organs rapidly started fitting inside her. She screamed a very chilling scream before blood burst out of her mouth and finally, like a full stop at the end of a sentence, she collapsed to the ground... dead.

Toby stared at the sight for a moment. He waited two years. _Two years_ in this _shithole_ of a job waiting for it to happen, and finally, _finally_ they'd brought Leah. He'd waited _so_ long for the moment and now this stupid bitch had ruined _everything._ Everything!

Toby screamed in frustration as he launched into an absolute rage, destroying _everything_ in the hairdresser's until all was absolutely decimated into nothing. Then he lifted his wrist, programmed his time manipulator, and in a whirl of fury he disappeared from the hairdresser's in a blink.

 


	4. F'rever In The Hozzle-pol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah falls ill, and the Doctor decides he has to take her to hospital.

The next morning, the Doctor woke up to find Rose had already vacated the bed. It was 10am, according to the clock, which staggered him a little.

He got dressed and patted down his freshly cut hair, going straight to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. There he found Rose, already in the process of doing exactly that.

“Hello,” the Doctor greeted, moving over to put down another cup beside hers.

She smiled and instantly her hands jumped out and grabbed his lapels, pushing him against the wall before she began to snog him with no hesitation whatsoever.

It was a good few minutes until she stopped, finally letting him breathe as she let go and turned back to the kitchen counter.

“Good morning to you too,” the Doctor supposed, attempting to get some moisture back in to his mouth.

“Do you want some tea?”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinkin',” Rose began as she stirred the hot water in the cups. “We should start doing... alone days.”

“Alone days?” he echoed, already getting out the milk.

“We drop Leah off with Sarah or Jack or someone and we just spend a day together.”

The Doctor mused on that for a moment as she stirred in the milk and dropped the teaspoon. “Sounds good. When did you want to do that?”

“Today?” Rose suggested, quite quickly.

The Doctor gazed at her for a moment taking a sip of tea. “You've got plans, haven't you,” he stated more than asked.

“Maybe,” Rose evaded.

He rolled his eyes, taking a sip of tea. “Is Leah up?”

“Not yet.”

“I'll get her,” he replied, and swept out the door.

* * *

 

“Leah,” the Doctor called gently in the doorway, seeing a small lump under the covers that could only be a little girl. “Leah, time to get up,” he said softly, moving to her. She was completely lost under the covers, just a scatter of brown hair poking out the top – and she didn't move an inch at his voice.

He sat down on the bed beside her, pulling back the covers to reveal her beautiful little face. Though, it wasn't looking so beautiful right now as she was quite red and sweating.

“Whoa,” the Doctor said quickly in alarm, brushing back her hair as she opened her eyes drowsily to look up at him.

“Daddy,” she whined.

“I know,” he told her softly, pulling his stethoscope out of his pocket and holding it to her chest, checking her dual hearts-beat, but things were fine. Even without taking her temperature he knew she had a fever, though.

“Oh, you're not well, are you?” the Doctor muttered to his little girl, standing up again. “I'm going to take you to the infirmary, okay?”

He stooped to pick her up, carrying her in both arms out the door and towards the infirmary. He met Rose on the way, who stopped dead at the sight of Leah, her eyes widening in horror.

The Doctor quickly stopped anything she may have said. “She's a little feverish and sick. I'm just going to scan her. Stay out of the way in case you pick it up.”

Rose stared for a moment, before finally nodding and backing into the kitchen doorway again. He quickened his pace to the infirmary, before setting Leah down on a bed and running for the hand-held scanner, calibrating it then running it down her.

**SCANNING FOR PROFILE...**

**Chromo XX**

**Physical 2 years, chronological 2 years**

**Ident 1-78 XY/Ident 16745 XX (cont'd)**

**3:1: 1-78/16745 (details request? Y/N)**

**3... 2... 1... -end-**

**...**

**IDENTIFIED PROFILE: L TYLER**

**SCANNING SYMPTOMS...**

**CORRELATING WITH ID...**

**POSITIVE ID ABNORMAL PRESENTATION:**

**Fever (19°c) (cont'd)**

**Headache, Nausea, Sore throat, (cont'd)**

**Cough (dry), Pallour, Perspiration, (cont'd)**

**Fatigue, Cramps**

**-end-**

**…**

**CORRELATING WITH TARDIS DATABASE…**

**HISTORY:**

**Recent: Sol 3 – Region 1**

**Sol 3 – Region 1**

**Zolynawia – Region 2**

**Excon 45 – Region 8 -end-**

**SCANNING DISEASE DATABASES...**

**CHECKING PROFILE IMMUNITIES...**

**FINISHED SCANNING**

**98% probability:**

**Zolynawian Reverse Influenza**

**6% probability:**

**Excon Chapenzu**

**0.5% probability:**

**Sol 3 Seasonal Influenza**

**-end-**

**REPEAT? Y/N**

The Doctor pulled a face, hit **N** and put the scanner back down before going to the cupboard to get the appropriate medication. When he got back Leah was sitting there looking quite miserable.

“Daddy, got a head hurt,” she said softly.

“I know,” he said gently, leaning forward to kiss her before preparing the needle gun. “Don't worry, got something that's going to help with that. Do you feel like you're going to throw up?”

She nodded.

He leaned over to get a kidney bowl from the side and gave it to her. “There, do it in that.”

She nodded again, holding the bowl in both hands and looking up at him. “Daddy... I gonna die?”

“Oh no, definitely not,” the Doctor assured her with a beaming smile. “You've just got a bit of an alien strain of the flu, that's all. Easily treated.”

“Okay,” she replied.

“Relax your arm for me.”

She did so, completely trusting him as he pressed the needle gun to her arm and pulled the trigger. It hissed and the liquid filtered in, then he took it away before he ran off and returned with a plastic cup of water, giving it to her.

“There, you go, drink that. Remember if you think you're going to be sick, aim for the bowl,” he said with a smile, and then leant forward to give her a final hug and a kiss. “You gonna be okay on your own for a few minutes? I'm going to talk to Mummy.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Bring Bundy, 'k?”

He nodded. “I will. Drink that down and try and get some sleep.”

* * *

 

He met Rose in the corridor, pacing up and down continuously. The moment the Doctor stepped out of the doorway she was on him instantly, grabbing his arm.

“It’s okay,” the Doctor said quickly before she could get a word in. “It’s Zolynawian Reverse Influenza. She must’ve picked it up when we went there last week.”

Rose however, wasn’t relaxing. “Is that bad? What is that?”

“It’s just like the flu. It’s fine, really,” the Doctor assured her quickly.

Rose breathed a rather massive sigh of relief, visibly relaxing. “So she’s completely okay, yeah?”

He nodded. “I do need to have a word with Martha, though.”

Rose instantly tensed again. “What…”

“It’s nothing,” the Doctor insisted again. “I just need to figure out how she’s going to get treated. Zolynawian Reverse Influenza isn’t life threatening, it’s just a bit… umm… unpredictable.”

“Unpredictable sounds bad!” Rose squeaked.

He leaned forward to kiss her, then drew back and grinned. “I, Sir Doctor of Tardis, promise to Dame Rose of the Powell Estate, that Leah isn’t going to die. Okay?”

Rose realised he was patronising her slightly, and got a little annoyed at that. “Look, don’t be like that with me, I’m just worried okay?”

His grin morphed to an apologetic smile. “I know. Sorry. But she really is going to be fine, so relax. Go grab Bundy then go to Leah while I get us to Torchwood and find Martha.”

Rose nodded, pecked him a kiss again, then she ran off down the corridor to get the bear. Without a beat, he spun on his heel and jogged to the console room.

* * *

 

Jack was there to greet him as the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS only a few minutes later.

“Haven’t seen you for a bit,” Jack told him.

The Doctor frowned. “Really? How long since Christmas?”

“It’s February.”

The Doctor thought about that. “ _Really_ have to fix that feed reversal loop shell…” He mused, before returning to his senses. “Never mind. Is Martha around?”

“Don’t mind me, then,” Jack joked. “I’ll get her.”

As Jack left to find Martha, the Doctor found himself standing in complete silence in the middle of the Hub. He was next to the rift manipulator machine. He experimentally tapped it, and it seemed to quiver slightly. _That_ was going to come down at any moment, he was sure.

“Doctor?” Martha’s voice interrupted his thought trail, and he looked up to see her and Jack moving towards him. “You've had a haircut. Did Rose have to drug you?”

The Doctor decided to ignore the last of that sentence. “We’ve got a bit of a problem. It’s Leah, she’s ill, and…”

Jack seemed to instantly freeze on the spot. “Wait, what?!”

“She’s okay!” the Doctor said quickly before Jack could explode. “It’s Zolynawian Reverse Influenza.”

“Oh, thank god,” Jack breathed, relaxing.

“I don't know very much about that one,” Martha confessed.

“It's basically the flu,” the Doctor told her. “But the symptoms themselves are really erratic and fast, she's going to need watching twenty-four hours a day because even if she starts coughing we need to get rid of it within an hour else it's going to be trouble. The good news is it's not contagious with her immune system, it's just the constant care that's going to be a problem.”

“Why not treat her yourself?” Martha wondered.

The Doctor swallowed. “I made a promise to myself when Leah was made. I'm not going to have anything medical to do with Rose or Leah. I'll get too attached.”

They both nodded, understanding that.

“I don't mind looking after her,” Jack said suddenly. “But I only really know field surgery. If you can tell me what to do...”

The Doctor shook his head. “You've got a team to look after.”

“Then what do we do?” Jack asked.

Martha thought about that for a moment. “Well if you want to give her constant care, I can only really think of one option...”

* * *

 

“Daddy'll be back in a minute,” Rose told the toddler gently, smiling. “He's gone to get Auntie Martha.”

“Okay,” Leah said, hugging Bundy tighter. “Mummy, we no do school now?”

Rose shook her head. “Not while you're sick, no. And who wants to do school while they're sick?” she said, laughing. “We'll save it for when you feel better, yeah?”

“Long sick time?” Leah asked quietly.

“You'll have to ask Daddy that,” Rose replied, leaning forward to kiss her. “But I think it'll only be a few weeks.”

“That f'rever!” Leah whined.

Rose laughed. “No, it's not _that_ long, Leah.”

“Right,” the Doctor began, strolling into the doorway followed by Martha. “We've got a solution.”

Rose looked up quickly. “What is it?”

The Doctor moved over to Leah, sitting on the bed and brushing back her hair caringly. “You're sick, and to be safe me and Auntie Martha have decided that we're going to take you to a hospital, okay?”

“Hozzle-pol?” Leah repeated.

“Yeah, but it's a nice hospital run by a friend of Martha's and he's going to look after you all day every day, get you anything you want at all and you can play all you like.”

“Hospital?” Rose echoed in his ear and he looked at her with a nod.

“Unit hospital,” he muttered to her, before looking back at Leah. “It does mean you're going to sleep in another place with lots of other children for a while, okay? But me and Mummy will be there all the time.”

“... Okay,” Leah eventually agreed, and he smiled, leaning forward to kiss her.

“Have you got any questions?” the Doctor asked her.

“Yeah,” Leah said. “Long sick time?”

“Oh no, only a few weeks,” he assured her.

“F'rever!” Leah wailed again, and everyone laughed.  

 


	5. Ella-va Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah is settled into the UNIT hospital, before Jack reveals why he's suddenly distanced himself from her. The Doctor and Rose discover a stream of recent child deaths in the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Includes some Jack backstory that I completely made up :P

The TARDIS churned into existence outside the UNIT medical headquarters at 2pm. Out stepped the Doctor first, cuddling Leah to his chest; the girl wrapped up in blankets with Bundy in her arms. She was dozing on his shoulder. Rose closely followed him, then Martha after her, who shut the door.

Rose looked up, faced by a massive industrial building cordoned off with huge fences and guards around the entire perimeter. It looked very unwelcoming, but Martha led them to it, regardless. In the reception area was a woman who sat behind a desk tapping away at the computer. On their entry, she looked up and smiled.

“Oh, hello, Martha!” she greeted, giving a wave.

Martha smiled in return. “Hi, Pam. I've got an admission.”

The Doctor took that as his cue, stepping forward. “Hello, my daughter has Zolynawian Reverse Influenza, can you treat her?”

The woman smiled. “Yes, sir, of course. What's her name?”

“Leah Tyler.”

“And how old is she in human terms, do you know?”

“She's two years and two months,” Rose told her.

“Does she have any allergies?”

“She's anaphylactic to aspirin.”

“And what are the species of the mother and father?”

“The mother here is human and I'm Gallifreyan,” the Doctor replied, and she tapped away into her computer promptly.

After a moment she frowned. “Oh, we don't appear to have much information on your species, sir...”

“This is the Doctor,” Martha clarified in an undertone.

The woman seemed to freeze mid-smile, a smile which slowly dropped into slack-jawed pure shock. “... You're... You're the Doctor?” she stammered. “The Doctor?”

“Yes, I am,” the Doctor replied, a little wearily. He could already tell this was probably going to be a common occurrence around here.

Pam gaped for a moment longer, and then somehow managed to find some words from the dictionary to say. “Sir, it's such an honour...”

“Yeah, yeah,” the Doctor batted away. “Look, can you treat my daughter or am I am going to get faster treatment from a plum?”

“Doctor!” Rose exclaimed, digging him in the ribs with an elbow.

“What?” he asked innocently, holding Leah closer to him.

Pam seemingly abruptly mentally slapped herself in the face and started again. “Sorry, sir! Yes, sir! I will call for a nurse to escort you straight away!” she said quickly, reaching for the phone so fast they barely saw her hand move. “Hi, Susie, we've got another patient here needing an escort. Leah Tyler, two years, two months, a Gallifreyan-Human hybrid... It's the Doctor! No, not Doctor Johnston... The Doctor... Yeah!... I know, right? He's standing here right in front of me...”

Pam stopped, and looked at the Doctor standing there right in front of her looking a little annoyed.

“... If you could come to reception to escort Leah to paediatrics,” she finished quickly, before hanging up the phone.

* * *

 

“I didn't really think that UNIT would have a hospital... or children's ward,” Rose admitted as they walked through the paediatric ward filled with sick children. Some looked human, and others looked alien, some were a mix of the two. Some of them were playing on the covers with their cross-species parents; some were playing together.

“I suppose it makes sense,” the Doctor reasoned. “Hundreds of aliens living on Earth right now. They get sick, they get pregnant.”

Martha nodded. “We try to find where they are living. We have field operatives all over the world. We make sure they know we have medical facilities available to them as well. We deal with everything from childbirth to terminal cases. With childbirth, the hospital deals with the birth to the best of our knowledge, then there's a department in UNIT that records the birth and that offers advice to the alien parents on how to integrate into Earth's society. Also we try to get as much information about the parents' species as we can for future reference.”

“So you keep records on every patient?” the Doctor wondered.

Martha caught his tone. “We do, but don't worry. Leah is what we call a ghost case. Nothing will be recorded of her ever being here.”

“Good,” the Doctor muttered as they reached the last bed in the row, vacant. At the nurse's indication he laid Leah down into it, and the toddler woke up from her doze.

“Daddy, Mummy,” she said tiredly, looking around. “You no leave, 'k?” she said quickly, holding the cuff of her dad's jacket.

“We'll be here all the time,” Rose told her, kissing her too.

“Won't be able to get rid of us,” the Doctor assured her with a grin. “They're going to check you over first then you can go back to sleep.”

“No, play peas?” she asked.

The Doctor nodded. “Of course. But only for an hour or so because you need to rest.”

“'K,” Leah replied, cuddling Bundy tighter.

* * *

 

It turned out Leah had been lying when she'd agreed to an hour, and they ended up spending the entire day playing with her until it got to 7pm. The Doctor and Rose read a story to her and settled her down for the night, sitting with her until she fell asleep. The ward was quiet when they left to go back to the TARDIS to take Martha back to Torchwood and explain the situation to a group of anxious Torchwood employees, who all seemed to think Leah was terminally ill.

After unsuccessfully trying to assure them she wasn't on her deathbed, the Doctor and Rose went back to the TARDIS with Jack in tow who was obviously trying to make himself useful. He made them some snacks and tea without them asking and they all convened in the living room an hour later.

The television was buzzing away, but even though they were all staring at it no one was really watching it. Just gazing at the picture, absorbed in thought.

“It feels weird knowin' she's not here,” Rose said suddenly in the silence.

The Doctor looked at her seriously. “She really is going to be okay, all right? It's just the flu. She's in a good place now. She's going to be taken care of. The hospital is just a precaution.”

“I know,” Rose sighed, head in her hands. “Just feels weird.”

He nodded, taking her into a hug. “I know. Same here.”

For a while they stayed like that, just holding each other. After a moment Rose looked up at his face, leant forward and gave him a kiss. “I'm gonna go to bed,” she announced.

“Okay,” the Doctor replied, kissing her in return. “I'll be in later.”

She left out the door, leaving the Doctor and Jack alone. The Doctor looked at Jack, still sitting there staring at nothing. “Jack?”

Jack instantly broke out of his thoughts. “Hmm?”

“D'you want to come and see Leah with us tomorrow?”

Jack's eyes widened a little, before shrinking back to normal size. “No, thanks.”

“What's wrong with you?” the Doctor wondered, genuinely concerned.

“Nothing,” Jack insisted.

“You've been avoiding the topic ever since we mentioned taking her to hospital. Seriously, what's wrong with you?”

“Nothing, really,” Jack insisted.

The Doctor sighed. “Jack, I'm far too old for the 'guess what my problem is' game now. Talk to me.”

“You probably don't wanna hear it.”

“I do,” the Doctor insisted. “Tell me.”

Jack looked at the Doctor with a sigh, and then got up off of his own sofa to sit next to the Doctor. He took a breath. “I... I had a little girl. It was so long ago now, lifetimes ago, but I remember her face every day. She looked just like Leah... You know, the soft brown hair and gorgeous brown eyes,” Jack began, smiling a little as he recalled her face. “She was all bright-eyed and always happy, always laughing.... Just like Leah.”

The Doctor didn't interrupt, just sat there gazing at Jack, waiting to listen.

“I was Time Agent trainee and her mum was dead. I didn't wanna leave her alone so often, but I had to because the Time Agency didn't allow family at that time, since that would make us weaker. There was a penalty of imprisonment. So I couldn't tell anyone, I had to hide her and educate her and... And leave her alone for ages during the day. I only had six months left on training and then I'd be able to take her away with me to a better life. That was the plan.

“She suddenly got ill. So I fobbed it off and just tucked her up and got her some throat soothers and everything. So when she got a bit sicker I didn't know what to do. I stole medicines from the Time Agency and got some back-house doctors in, but they didn't help. So I dropped her off at the hospital saying I'd found her in the street and after that everything was fine, they diagnosed her with some illness and started treating her. She started getting better and I tried to sneak in during the night as often as I could to see her.

“But one night, I went to her room to see her and she'd suddenly become really, really ill. She started talking about monsters in the shadows, I think she was hallucinating or something. I tried to calm her down but she started screaming, yelling at me that the monster was going to kill her, that it was standing over her... She was screaming, 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy' over and over again, I checked the door to see if anyone was coming... And... suddenly she stopped screaming. When I looked back she... she... God, Doc,” he croaked, taking a breath. “I... I think I saw her die. She just went really quiet and sort of seemed to... blend back into the covers... kinda... shrink. The light in her eyes just faded. Like the life had just been... drained away. Her... Her monitors all flat-lined, and all the doctors and nurses came running. I couldn't even take her body or stay and grieve or anything... I had to leave. I just left her there. I just left her there, Doc. Pretended like nothing had ever happened. Carried on training and moved away to the better life without even knowing where she'd been buried. I tried to find her but I couldn't.”

Then Jack did something the Doctor had never seen him do before. He started to cry.

The Time Lord among the two quickly took that as a cue to hug him, just letting him cry into his chest for five long, silent minutes. When he was finished he drew back from the Doctor, sniffed and wiped his eyes.

“Sorry,” he said.

“It's okay,” the Doctor assured him.

“I'd better go,” Jack said abruptly, getting to his feet quickly.

The Doctor just gazed at him for a moment. “... You sure you won't come tomorrow?” he wondered. “She'd love to see you.”

Jack nodded. “I'm sure. Just... give me a bit. I will later, but not now.”

“Okay,” the Doctor replied, offering a small smile. “I'm sorry.”

Jack just nodded at that. “Thanks for listening to me.”

“Any time,” the Doctor assured him, and Jack made to the door. “Jack?”

“Yeah?” the ex-Time Agent asked, looking back at the Doctor.

“What was her name?”

“Ella,” Jack croaked, and then rapidly left.

* * *

 

When the Doctor and Rose went back to the ward the next morning, they found a hustle and bustle of doctors, nurses and people in drab grey overalls moving in and out of closed curtains around a specific bed in the ward. They reached Leah's bed where the girl was contentedly eating some Cheerios and getting quite a bit of it down her front.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Rose said, moving in to sit beside the girl. Leah beamed at the sight of her parents, reaching up for hugs from each of them in turn. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Leah replied happily, munching down her cereal again. Rose quickly tried to clean up the milk and Cheerios all down her front, but the Doctor was staring at the closed curtains just up the aisle. After a few moments Rose realised he was staring.

“Curiosity’s gonna be what kills you,” she told him seriously.

He looked back, torn out of his thoughts. “Sorry,” he said, then got up and ran to the closed curtains to investigate.

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes, turning her attentions back to Leah. “How're you feeling?”

“Bleh,” Leah replied, sticking out her tongue and looking exactly like her father.

Rose couldn't help but smile at this. “Yeah, but that's okay. You gotta get sick to get better, that's what your granny used to tell me.”

“I don't like it, though,” Leah said quietly.

“I know. But after you get better me and Daddy will take you anywhere in the universe you wanna go, okay?”

“Okay,” Leah replied, brightening up a bit as she finished off her cereal. Rose set it on the side, and tried again to dab her clean of milk and Cheerios just as the Doctor returned to the bedside.

“What's happenin'?” Rose asked him.

The Doctor pulled a face, glanced at Leah, and then shook his head solemnly.

Rose understood instantly. “Oh, that's so sad,” she muttered.

“Did they go get buried under a gound?” Leah suddenly asked, getting it instantly.

The Doctor decided to give her the truth. He and Rose had always been adamant about that, no matter how harsh it sounded. “Yes, Leah, they died.”

“What is that?” Leah asked, staring up at her father enquiringly.

The Doctor looked at Rose, then back at Leah. “Well, when people, or animals, or even plants get really old or they get really sick, a lot more sicker than you are now, their body stops working. When people die they don't eat or sleep or drink anymore.”

“Oh,” Leah muttered. “When'll you die?”

“Hey,” the Doctor said quickly, taking her hand and dropping to sit on the bed next to her. “Me and Mummy, and Uncle Jack and Auntie Martha and everyone – we all plan to still be here when we're all very old and you're all grown up, okay?”

She nodded, then her eyes flickered over to the curtained-off bed. “Why'd they die? They do somefink bad?”

“Oh no,” the Doctor replied. “That boy died because he was so sick his body stopped working. It wasn't his fault, it was no one's fault, he didn't do anything bad.”

“I get that sick?”

“Nooooo,” the Doctor replied, extending his vowel. “You'll be fine. That's a promise.”

“Okay,” she replied shortly, coughed a little bit, then pulled a face. “Need the loo.”

“Need a hand?” the Doctor asked, lifting her up under the armpits and holding her in the crook of his arm.

“No,” Leah said indignantly. “I do by my own!”

“Okay, okay,” the Doctor conceded, setting her down on the floor. “Go and show me what you're made of, then.”

“Okay!” Leah replied happily, then left.

Rose watched her go, turning to look at the Doctor. “She's gone the wrong way.”

“I know,” the Doctor replied simply, smiling before his face dropped. “Do you want to hear something you don't want to hear?”

“What?” Rose asked, blinking.

“Well, do you?”

“I dunno... What? What don't I wanna hear?”

“Do you really want to hear it?”

“Come on, Doctor,” Rose prompted, getting a little annoyed now. “Tell me already.”

“Okay...” He took a breathed, pursing his lips... and as he spoke his next sentence Rose's limbs seemed to go numb. “That boy who died... He had what Leah has.”

It was that exact moment Leah came back in, looking around the ward with wide eyes.

“Over there,” the Doctor told her, indicating with a pointed finger to the direction of the toilets.

“I know!” Leah insisted, before leaving in the direction he'd indicated.

 

 


	6. Anywhere and Everywhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor discovers more about the recent stream of deaths in the hospital. Jack takes up a new case to distract himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I totally got really busy and excuses excuse excuse so I'm blitzing through right now :D

There was a play park in the hospital grounds just outside the paediatric unit, and it was a rare day in the British calendar where it was quite nice and warm so the Doctor and Rose took Leah out. Despite apparently being ill, the deceptively energetic toddler was leading her parents on a roller coaster ride from toy to toy demanding that they push her when appropriate. By lunchtime she'd exhausted herself and her parents, so Rose took her back to bed. When Rose returned to the play park she found the Doctor sitting on the horse spring rider – obviously far too small for his gangly long limbs – slowly waving back and forth staring into the distance. She sniggered a little at the sight, moving forward towards him.

“Doctor?” she called.

She must have completely startled him, as he looked sharply up, upset his balance and ended up flying head-first over the horse's head and crashing into the ground.

“Oh god, sorry, are you okay?” Rose yelled as she ran towards him, sprawled out face down in the grass.

The Doctor lifted his head, spat out some mud and looked up at her as she reached him, taking his arm to help him onto his feet. “Ow,” he said simply, rubbing his chin.

She giggled at his expression. “Martha's free if you wanna talk to her.”

He nodded, and made off towards the hospital.

Rose quickly stopped him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to face her. “Hold on,” she said, gathering her sleeve in her hand and reaching up to wipe away the mud from his face. “There.”

“Thanks,” he said, grinning back before they made their way back into the hospital, meeting a grinning Martha at the door who'd been watching the whole thing from inside.

“You wanted to see me?” she asked.

“Yeah,” the Doctor said, closing the door behind them. “Do you know about the boy who died earlier?”

“The Thomppkin's boy? The Bizo?”

“Yes... Do you know how he died?”

“We haven't done the autopsy, we're pending the permission of the parents to do that, but I think we are debating the conclusion that it may have been something to do with hypercytokinemia.”

“What's that?” Rose wondered.

“Cytokines signal the cells in the immune system to travel to where you've been infected, and hypercytokinemia is when too many immune cells are sent too fast to the same place. So if the infection's in your lungs it blocks the airway and causes death,” the Doctor explained in his usual Doctor-ish way, before looking at Martha. “Which doesn't really make sense, because I don't think the Bizo species have cytokines?”

“We'll know if we get the autopsy results,” Martha told him seriously. “But you know as well as I do, Doctor, sometimes they can just take a turn for the worse and there's nothing you can do about it.”

The Doctor paused for a moment, nodding at that. “Can I see his file?” he asked eventually.

“... Why?”

“I just want to check.”

Martha gazed at him seriously for a moment. “Doctor, I know this is about Leah, but she isn't in any danger. She's going to be fine, okay?”

“I just need to know how he died,” the Doctor reinforced. “Please.”

“... Okay,” she finally conceded with a  sigh. “Be back in a minute.”

When she'd gone, Rose finally turned to the Doctor. “Are you worried?”

“I want to be one step ahead,” the Doctor confessed.

“Stop worryin’, you're making me worried, yeah?” Rose moaned. “She's okay, she's just a bit tired. You said this was just a precaution.”

“I know, and it is,” the Doctor said, breathing a sigh before turning to face her. “It probably was just something that happens but I need to know. Just in case.”

“Okay,” Rose finally conceded, reaching up to hug him. “You make a good dad, you know.”

He smiled at that, returning her hug. “Thanks, but I have no idea what I'm doing.”

“Neither me,” Rose confessed. “But I think that's normal. You know, at school I did sex education and this one time I had to take this pretend baby home and look after it for a week. The first night I didn't sleep a wink and neither did Mum, cos it just kept cryin', and I did all the stuff they told us to but it wouldn't stop. I thought it was broken so in the end I just yanked the batteries out, and Mum said she wished she could've done that with me.”

The Doctor laughed at that.

“But you seem to know what you're doin',” Rose continued with a shrug.

“I'm glad I have that aura around me, because I really don't,” he replied with a  smile. “Someone once told me that being a parent wasn't something you could just get taught in a lesson at school, you just do what you think is the best option and maybe once, if you're lucky, you might get something right.”

“That's good. Who said that?”

He frowned for a moment. “Can't remember,” he finally admitted. “But it sounded poignant.”

Rose laughed and held him, just as Martha came back with the file. The Doctor whipped it out of her hands and opened it, before he slipped on his glasses to scrutinise the details. Rose and Martha could almost hear the millions of tiny cogs in his brain whirring around as he thought, scanning through the pages.

“I think we'd better leave him to it,” Rose said in an undertone to Martha, nudging her with an elbow and giggling, before striding off and leaving the Doctor to pour over the file.

* * *

 

Jack sat in Torchwood alone, feeling quite sorry for himself.

Mickey and Ianto were down the sewers again; Gwen was on her holiday; and Martha, the Doctor and Rose were all in the Manchester UNIT hospital with Leah. So he was completely on his own today.

Ever since he had told the Doctor about Ella, he couldn't get her out of his head. He had always wondered – was there anything he could have done? Could he have done anything to save her? He'd feel better if there was someone to blame, someone to take the wrap for her death. But there really wasn't, she had just spiralled down into fever and hallucinations and died suddenly. There was nothing that could be done by anyone.

Just one of those things, he kept telling himself. But he still felt completely miserable.

His computer suddenly bleeped, and he was torn out of his self-absorbed world to check the screen. Alien life detected - possibly hostile. He tried to centralise the location, but it was all over the place. The nearest one was an alleyway in Cardiff Bay, so deciding it would be better to occupy his mind with something, he packed up his stuff, got his coat and went to have a look.

* * *

 

“So, House M.D, what you got?” Rose asked when the Doctor finally appeared in the lounge doorway an hour later, offering him a cup of tea.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Nothing,” he concluded, dropping it onto the table and collapsing onto the sofa beside her to take the proffered cup.

“Just one of those things, then?” she asked.

He nodded, taking a sip. “Just one of those things,” he repeated quietly, more to himself than her.

Rose gazed at him for a moment. “So how long till Leah's out of here d'you reckon?” she said, trying to sound positive.

The Doctor stopped drinking and frowned. “What's the day today?”

“Tuesday.”

“Friday, then.”

“You think?”

“I hope,” the Doctor clarified, then finished the tea and put the mug down on the table. “Do you want to go somewhere while Leah's asleep?”

“Yeah. Where?”

“I don't know. Anywhere.”

“Anywhere sounds like a great place,” she joked.

“There is actually a planet called Anywhere,” the Doctor mused.

“Really?”

“Though it's pronounced Ah-nye-weir in the native tongue of the Anywians. Well, they're not called Anywians, technically it's a Scottish colony, so they called themselves Anywian Humans. Yep, I know what you're thinking, and in the 51st century Scotland has colonies... So does Wales. On their own individual planets. So they got what they wanted in the end I suppose...”

“Doctor...”

“Don't worry, England has its own planet too. In fact it has two planets. One's more of a commercial planet, though. I think Coca-Cola bought it in the 45th century and tried to use it for advertising, but there was a bit of an uproar and that was the death of Coca-Cola. I mean, can you imagine that? A world without Coke!”

“Doctor.”

“Well everyone bought Pepsi instead of course, but that's not the point. And just in case you're thinking that they named it 'Anywhere' for a laugh the English language evolved pretty dramatically between the 21st century and the 45th, what with text speak and all that. Basically, the vowels were removed from the alphabet. Kind of like Welsh. So all the school-kids had to learn B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L...”

“Doctor...!”

“... M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z. Isn't that fascinating? And 'roflcopter' made it in the dictionary. I still don't know what that means, though. But the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of Martin Luther King recreated his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather's 'I have a dream' speech with the evolved language for some poignancy. My favourite bit was, 'I have a meditative image contemplation that one rotation of the Earth on the purply-orange protuberances of Georgia Minor Five, the sons, daughters and variations thereupon of former unwilling servant beings and the daughters and variations thereupon of former unwilling servant being owners will be able to leg-rest down in conglomeration at the flat surface of non-biological kinsmanship....”

“Doctor!”

“Oh, you know something else? There's a planet called Everywhere too! So you can say 'next stop, Everywhere!' and it makes perfect sense. Oh, wouldn't that be great? I'm just going to pop out to Anywhere, darling, do you want some milk? I think Everywhere has milk...”

“Doctor!!!” Rose yelled quite loudly.

He jolted instantly out of his musings. “What?”

“Anywhere?” she prompted.

“Where?” he asked, confused.

“Oh for god's sake,” Rose said with a laugh, pulling him onto his feet. She pushed him out of the door still with his tea in hand, before diving to retrieve her coat. She slipped it on, but couldn’t help momentarily pausing for thought. He usually only babbled either when he was showing off or trying to distract himself from his thoughts. Since he no longer felt obliged to show off to her, she had to assume it was the latter.

Sighing, she followed him out of the door.

* * *

 

Jack reached the trace location in Cardiff, and to his surprise he found it was cordoned off by police. He stepped under the tape without hesitation and went straight to the nearest policeman.

“Jack Harkness, Torchwood,” he said, grabbing the man's attention. “What happened here?”

“A boy was found dead an hour ago,” the policeman told him. “Could be homicide, not confirmed. Name was Joe Stevens, 9-years-old. Got away from his mother, and when she found him he was dead.”

“Cause of death?”

“We're not sure. We're waiting on the autopsy results.”

“Thanks,” Jack said, then moved off to where the trace was without another word. He barked a command at the forensics to clear the area for Torchwood, then brought out a hand-held scanner and tried to locate the trace. He moved forward slightly, took a step right, then finally rested on a point right in the middle of the alleyway where the trace was the most powerful.

He frowned a little, connecting the dots in his mind. He turned back to the crowd of police and forensics, and beckoned one of them.

“Can you show me where his body was found?” Jack asked.

“There, sir,” the woman replied, pointing at the exact spot Jack had just picked up on the scanner.

“Thanks,” he said shortly, then waved his hand to get her away. He then brought up the local scanner, and set it to register any form of alien trace. Apart from the bit he'd already picked up, there was none.

He left the scene, deep in thought. That couldn't be coincidence. It was far too precise. But it seemed fate had given him something to occupy his mind free of Ella – he had a murderous alien to find.

 

 


	7. DI Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is another child death in the hospital as Jack continues his investigation.

There'd been another death, that much was apparent. Of course, the Doctor had quickly said good morning to Leah and then run off to investigate.

Rose just rolled her eyes, giving Leah a hug and a kiss and tried to make sure the crumbs of the toast Leah was eating stayed in her mouth as opposed to all over the covers.

“How are you feelin’ this mornin'?” Rose asked her as the girl downed her orange juice with noisy gulps.

“Fine,” Leah told her loudly, orange juice all around her mouth and on her hands. “I wanna go home. When I go home?”

“Just a few days,” Rose assured her.

“F'rever,” Leah said with a sigh, finishing the orange juice.

Rose smiled, taking the cup and using a tissue to dry her mouth. Leah began to dry her hands on her front before Rose gave her another tissue to use instead.

“So what d'you want to do today?” Rose asked.

“Make neckle-says, peas?”

Rose lowered her eyebrows, confused. “Neckle-says...? Oh! Necklaces!” she realised. “Yeah, we can do that.”

The Doctor arrived, looking sombre. He gave Rose a look that she couldn’t quite place.

“Me and Daddy are just gonna talk a sec,” she said quickly, getting to her feet and grabbing the Doctor's arm to pull him away from Leah's bed towards the door, maintaining an air of confidence.

The Doctor scratched the back of his head awkwardly for moment. “Zolynawian Reverse Influenza.”

Rose stared at him. “You're kiddin'. Tell me you're kiddin'.”

“Wish I was,” he muttered, still scratching the back of his head. “I'll get the file and check through it later; find out the cause. But two in two days both from ZRI. That's...” He paused to try and think of the word, lips pursed. “... Coincidental.”

“Do you think...” Rose began, and then stopped herself for fear of what was about to come out of her mouth and the implications of it.

“Do I think it could be the disease?” the Doctor completed vaguely. “Maybe. I need to check the records. But Leah's going to be fine.”

“Yeah,” Rose replied positively, smiling. “She's a Tyler.”

“A Tyler with a Gallifreyan immune system,” the Doctor amended, grinning.

“Let's stop worryin' about her, yeah?” Rose suggested. “I dunno, it's just so selfish. If other kids are dyin' then we should focus on that rather than her all the time.”

“So we're saying that something is going on here?”

“Maybe.”

He gazed at her for a moment, a smile tugging at the edge of his lips.

She finally caved, grinning cheekily with her tongue between her teeth. “Oh, come on, we love it.”

“Yep,” the Doctor conceded, giving one final ruffle of his hair before taking her hand and moving back to Leah, who had been sat there staring at them for a while.

“What were you talkin' 'bout?” she asked instantly.

“Nothing!” her father replied brightly.

“It carna been nothing, else you'd stand there 'n not talk but you were talking so it was somefink,” she pointed out, naturally suspicious.

“Nope, cannot fault that logic,” the Doctor admitted with a shrug, then changed the subject. “So what are we doing today?”

“Necklace-making,” Rose told him.

“Oh... Fun,” the Doctor said, slightly unenthusiastically.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Go and find that file.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Go and investigate, we'll be right here.”

“Okay,” he said, giving his girls each a kiss and a hug. “I'll see you later.”

* * *

 

Jack was on the road to Bristol to a trace location. The radio was appropriately playing Chris Rea's 'Road To Hell' as he was crossing over the Severn Bridge, the ex-Time Agent breaking just about every driving rule in the book.

It took him barely twenty minutes to drive the fifty minute journey, following the map to pull up outside a Sainsbury's. As per usual he strolled straight through the police tape to the scene of the crime around the back of the building, shoving policemen out the way as he went.

He scanned the area, and found the point of alien interference near the wall. After checking with a forensic investigator, he confirmed that the exact point was where the body had been found.

“18-year-old and 17-year-old girl, truanting from school,” the policeman told him. “Were hanging out around here and they were attacked. They were both taken to hospital, one's in a coma and the other's in shock.”

Jack pounced on this instantly. “Which hospital?”

* * *

 

Within two minutes he was back on the road, and Chris Rea was still playing. The policeman had been reluctant at first to tell him the name of the hospital, but a posh-looking ID, a gun and a smile that could melt ice had been all that was needed.

If the victims were both still alive, that was all the lead he needed. If he could just find out what this alien had looked like and how it had attacked then he was already over halfway to solving the problem. One quick call to the Doctor would identify what he was dealing with.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He checked the caller ID, smiled and picked it up.

“Hey, Rose,” he said down his blue-tooth headset. “How are you guys doing?”

 _“The Doctor's found himself somethin’ to investigate,”_ Rose replied.

“Didn't take him long. How long was that, two days?”

 _“Not even that,”_ Rose replied, laughing. _“You gotta be bored on your own down there.”_

“Oh, don't worry about me, got my own little investigation going on.”

_“Really?”_

“Yeah, some weird alien activity's going on so I'm checking it out.”

 _“Well have fun with that,”_ she said. _“Oh, wait, Leah wants to talk to you.”_

There was a small scuffle, and suddenly Leah voice came very loudly through his earpiece. _“Unka Jack?”_

Jack suddenly stiffened, eyes wide as his hands tightened on the steering wheel. But he managed to keep his voice level. “Hello, Leah, how're you feeling?”

 _“Bleh,”_ she replied. _“Is boring here. When are you coming?”_

“Sorry, Leah, I've got a bit of a mission at the moment, but I'll try my best to come and see you,” he said quickly.

_“Promise?”_

“Promise,” he replied.

_“I miss you!”_

“I miss you guys too,” he replied, smiling.

_“Daddy wants to talk to you, I can tell him to go away if you want?”_

Jack laughed. “Nah, put him on.”

_“Okay, bye!”_

“Bye, Leah!”

More scuffling over the phone was heard, just as Jack came off of the Severn Bridge and took a right.

 _“Jack, are you near your laptop?”_ the Doctor asked.

“Yep,” Jack replied. “Hold on.”

He pulled over into a pub car park, reaching over to his bag and pulling out the laptop. “What d'you need?”

_“I need you to check some medical records for me, can you open a browser and type in the URL 'uwi.uho-ch-r.u-c.w' then go to...”_

“Slow down,” Jack protested, quickly hitting in the URL and hitting enter. A very odd-looking website came up, filled with strange markings Jack couldn't make head nor tail of. The layout was very weird. “What the hell is this?” he asked seriously.

_“I upgraded your laptop a while back to access the universal web... Did I not tell you?”_

“Nope...” Jack replied, frowning a little. “Well, that'll explain some of the weird stuff me and Ianto found the other night on this crazy porn we...”

 _“Meanwhile!”_ the Doctor interrupted. _“Through your telepathic connection to the Tardis you should be able to read a...”_

“Wait, hold on, I have a telepathic connection to the Tardis?” Jack asked, boggle-eyed.

_“Yes... Did I not tell you that either?”_

“No, you didn't.”

_“I'm sure I mentioned it.”_

“You really didn't.”

_“Well, you've got one. So the text should partially translate for you. Have a look down the right side of the page and try and find something that resembles 'alerts'. In that language it sort of looks like the word 'peach' spelt backwards.”_

Jack had a long hard look, and after a moment found a backwards peach in the menagerie of English and alien. “Okay, found it,” he said, clicking.

_“On the list, try and find something that might look like Zolynawian Reverse Influenza, or it might be ZRI.”_

There was a brief pause, as Jack looked. “I can't see it. Hold on, I'll send a picture of the screen.”

He raised the Doctor-enhanced phone - something the Time Lord had told him about - and took the picture, sending it over the call.

_“... It's there. Thanks, Jack.”_

“Got what you needed?”

 _“Yep,”_ the Doctor replied.

“So what's your problem?”

“ _Had a few deaths on the ward from it. I checked the records, there's no obvious cause in either of them but 15 out of 21 kids on the ward have it. Looks like it's going around though, that was the alert list for common viruses at the moment across the universe.”_

“... Leah has ZRI,” Jack muttered.

 _“Thanks, Jack, did know that,”_ the Doctor replied somewhat sarcastically, then checked himself. _“Sorry.”_

“You're worried, it's okay,” Jack told him. “She's gonna be fine if she's anything like Mummy and Daddy.”

The Doctor laughed a little. _“Yeah. Thanks, Jack.”_

“You're welcome.”

_“Come up and see her. She really wants to see you.”_

“I've gotta go. Bye, Doc,” Jack said abruptly, and hung up.

* * *

 

The Doctor pulled a face and checked the screen, but Jack had quite literally hung up on him. He sighed and pocketed the device, turning to go back into the ward before he suddenly caught sight of a small child's feet sticking out from behind a desk in the corner, obviously hiding.

“Hello?” he asked, moving forward. He didn't expect an answer, and he didn't get one. As he peeked his head around he found a little Ha'can boy in the foetal position with his face pressed into his legs. By the way the child was dressed and the very yellow face of a Ha'can with an exceptionally high fever the Doctor could tell he was a patient.

“Hello,” he repeated, dropping down to his height. “I'm the Doctor, and you are...?”

The boy looked up with big bright-purple teary eyes. “Go away.”

“That's a strange name,” the Doctor continued brightly. “Are you okay, Go Away?”

“Shush,” the boy whispered, and buried his head again.

“What is it? Is this hide and seek? I love hide and seek,” the Doctor enthused, climbing behind the desk to sit by him. “Who are we hiding from?”

“My Dad,” the boy whispered.

“Why?”

“He's evil,” the boy said with a sniff.

“How's he evil?” the Doctor asked gently.

“I saw him last night, he killed Bri.”

The Doctor blinked in complete surprise. Bri was the boy who was found dead that morning. “Sorry?”

“He was all dark with a dark coat and everything, and his face was twisted and he laughed and killed Bri.”

The Doctor sat up a bit, suddenly very attentive. “Where's your dad now?”

“He got sent to Volag-noc.”

“When?”

“Five months ago.”

“What was your dad's name?”

“Ger-k'la Jitahi-lom Ta.”

The Doctor's heart fell a little at his words as he realised very quickly what was going on here. He knew that name. “No one can escape Volag-noc, well... except me... and I promise you that your dad isn't here and he will never ever find you. If he'd escaped it would be all over the universal news and the Shadow Proclamation would be here in an instant to protect you and your mum, okay, Lirok?”

“But I saw him,” the boy croaked.

“Hey,” the Doctor said, leaning forward to hug the boy. “I believe that you saw him, but you are running a really high fever. There's this little thing called hallucinating; when you're really, really ill sometimes your mind can conjure up all these strange images. Some of them are nice, but some of them are nasty, but most importantly they're not real. So you're safe, okay?”

The boy looked up at him, sniffing. “Okay.”

“Good,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Better get you back to bed then, Lirok.”

“Okay,” the boy said again, but was so weak he could barely get up. So the Doctor scooped him up and took him back into the ward to a relieved-looking nurse, bidding the boy good bye before moving back to Leah's bed, approaching the completion of Leah's brand new necklace absolutely chocked full of beads.

“Oh, very nice!” the Doctor complemented as Leah held it up to him, beaming. “My two clever necklace-making girls.”

Leah giggled. Rose was looking questioningly at him, so he inclined his head over to the corner. Then he felt Leah staring at him.

“Back in a minute,” he told her with a winning smile.

She harrumphed and folded her arms, so he laughed, gave her a kiss and went to Rose.

“So what you got now?” Rose asked.

“I think it might be the fever that's killing them,” the Doctor began quickly in an urgent voice, turning from happy father to worried Doctor in two seconds flat. “That boy was running a massively high fever. He says he saw his dad kill the boy who died last night. That's a hallucination, because his dad was Gakar-k'la Jikaqi-lok Ta.”

Rose pulled a face at that. “What, and he's dead? He choked to death tryin' to pronounce his own name?”

“No,” the Doctor continued, utterly serious. “You don't remember this? It was all over the news for weeks...”

Suddenly Rose's jaw dropped. “Oh god, he's the one that...”

“Yep,” the Doctor finished so she didn't have to. “So that boy has to be Lirok, the only child that survived. His mum must be around here somewhere.”

“What are they doing on Earth?” Rose asked quickly, trying to force herself not to turn around to look at Lirok.

“Probably new identities, new life... seeking asylum. Earth is pretty safe; being a level five planet. There are a lot of alien asylum seekers here on Earth.”

Rose nodded, and got back to the subject in hand. “So we think it's the fever?”

“I don't know, but it seems too obvious. Just in case there was someone in here I'll try and get access to the CCTV, but it's not likely, not with all the guards on the perimeter.”

The conversation was suddenly cut short by a little voice from across the room saying, “I'm bored!” and they both looked up to see Leah sitting there with her arms folded expectantly, so quickly they both shut up and obediently went back to her.

 

 


	8. A Bog for GIANTS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah suddenly becomes a lot sicker. The Doctor struggles to cope.

The Doctor and Rose had decided to go back to the TARDIS for lunch. They were only gone for twenty minutes.

They came back to the ward, and as per usual they looked straight down the row to where they knew Leah was probably playing around the bed. But there didn't seem to be any movement. Not really thinking much of it they continued down the aisle... And stopped dead in their tracks.

“Leah!” the Doctor shouted, suddenly alarmed as he ran over to her bedside.

The toddler didn't react. She lay there red with fever breathing heavily, her eyes closed.

“Leah,” the Doctor said sharply, not wanting to look at Rose. “Leah, talk to me.”

“What's happenin'?” Rose squeaked, resting a hand on her forehead. The girl was boiling hot. “Leah?”

“Leah, can you hear me?” the Doctor continued, putting his finger in Leah's tiny little palm. “Just squeeze my finger if you can hear me.”

A few extremely lengthy seconds passed before her hand tightened around his finger for a moment, then eased off.

“Okay, she can hear us,” the Doctor said quickly, leaning in. “Leah, can you open your eyes? Open them for me?” She didn't, and the Doctor looked at Rose. “Find Martha.”

She nodded, and was gone in a shot.

The Doctor kept his finger in Leah's palm, hand on her head. “Leah, you know how you say I worry a lot?  I'm really worried now, okay? I need you to talk to me. Then I'll stop worrying. Please just say hello.”

Leah opened her eyes to just slits, and the Doctor breathed a massive sigh of relief, hugging her and kissing her. “Don't scare me like that.”

“Daddy,” she croaked. “Feel ill.”

“I know, I know. Mummy's gone to get Auntie Martha and you'll feel better in no time, okay?”

“Hot,” she whined.

“I know,” the Doctor said again, brushing back her hair as she started to cry. The Doctor picked her up and held her close to him. It was like a little ball of fire in his arms.

“Daddy,” she sobbed.

“Yeah?”

“Y'know when Unka Mickey flush his fish down a bog, was that cos it died?”

“Yes,” he said, kissing her forehead.

“You gonna flush me down a bog when I die?”

The Doctor laughed at that. “Oh, no. Haven't I already told you? You're not going to die. Besides, you wouldn't fit down the bog.”

She giggled, and clung onto his tie.

“Well, unless it was a _really_ big bog. You know, like a bog for people with really big poos. Like the big giants from Megalo Major.”

She giggled again.

He smiled and kissed her once more. “So no, you're not dying and no one's flushing you down a bog. Okay?”

“Okay,” she murmured. “We go to Megalo May-gir?”

“Of course we can.”

“Doctor?” Martha called, running down the ward with Rose one step behind.

“Her fever's got worse,” the Doctor replied as she reached them.

“Thought I dealt with this this morning,” Martha murmured, moving over to Leah and drawing out an ear thermometer. “I'm going to poke this thermometer in your ear, okay Leah? Just stay still.”

Leah sniffed and nodded, still clinging desperately onto her dad. Martha took the temperature, then checked the reading and bit her lip.

“It's 16 degrees Celsius normally, isn’t it?” she asked, then showed the reading to the Doctor.

“And now it's 19,” he breathed, not looking very happy about that. “We need to cool her down. I don't know how it would work for a human Gallifreyan hybrid but I don't think it should go above 20. Has she been given any drugs?”

Martha shook her head. “I gave her lots of water to drink this morning and that fan,” she said, pointing to the white fan on the bedside table. “I didn't want to try ibuprofen or paracetamol on her with the allergy.”

“No...” the Doctor murmured, trying desperately to think of another way they could do this. “Okay... sponge bath. Make it reasonably cold.”

* * *

 

With a flash of ID Jack was immediately escorted to the doctor in charge of the two girls. He was told the girl in the coma, Chloé, had no detectable brainwaves and was only living on machines; completely brain-dead and was most likely never going to wake up again. The second girl, Kimmy, had a mild concussion from fainting and hitting her head on the pavement and was deep in emotional shock from the experience.

With a bit of charisma and more of the posh-looking ID, Jack was taken to Kimmy's room, where the 18-year-old was wide awake with a kind of darkness in her eyes Jack had seen so many times before.

Too many times.

He could see that she was a pretty girl, but right now she was as pale as a glass of milk. Her hair was unkempt, her fists clenched and her eyes red and puffy from constant crying.

She didn't even look up when he stood beside her bed, just fixated on a point on the far wall.

“Kimmy?” he asked.

She didn't reply.

“My name's Jack, I'm a policeman, sorta,” he said gently. “I'm investigating what happened to you and Chloé.”

She still didn't reply.

“You need to tell me all you can remember, then I'm going to find whatever did this to you and make sure it happens to no one else,” he persisted. “But I can't do that without you.”

“ _What_ ever,” the young woman suddenly repeated, her head snapping up to him with those cold, panicked eyes. “You said _what_ ever.”

“What?”

“Not whoever. Everyone else says whoever. But it's not a who.”

Jack nodded, getting it. “I know. Anything you can tell me, I'm listening.”

“It's gonna sound mad,” she croaked.

“I know. And guess what? I'm the only one that's going to believe you.”

“You're a shrink, aren't you? You're gonna lock me up.”

“No, I'm not,” he assured her. “I'm an investigator. I just don't deal with 'whoever's. No one else is here, so what you tell me stays with me.”

Her body relaxed a little, gazing into his eyes with sudden complete and utter trust. Jack was relieved at that; he'd thought it would take a little longer for her to let down her guard. She was obviously desperate to tell someone who would believe her and reason that she wasn't mad.

“Me and Chloé... We bunked off of double science and went to the shop. We got into the alley when I heard this noise, like a swooshing sound, and when I looked up I saw this shape of a man standing at the end of the path. Then it was suddenly next to us, and it had Chloé, grabbing her shoulders. I was just paralysed totally to the spot, Chloé was screaming and screaming but she was getting quieter until she just sorta... squeaked, then collapsed. Then it looked at me. I thought it was gonna kill me, when these people appeared from around the corner and it vanished, just like that. I think I fainted then. I woke up in the ambulance.”

Jack nodded. “This thing... What did it look like?”

It took a moment for Kimmy to reply as she took an affirming breath, her eyes flickering over to him for a moment before she spoke. “I saw... Well.. I think... I think it was Freddy Krueger.”

* * *

 

It felt like the rug had been swept out from underneath them.

Despite Martha's best reassurances, the Doctor and Rose were panicking quite badly. The cold bath had done very little for Leah besides make her soaking wet; the fans and liquids were doing nothing and the drugs the Doctor found in the TARDIS for her weren't doing much either. Even the clown that had been doing his rounds on the paediatric ward to cheer the kids up barely made her smile.

Needless to say, the Doctor had very quickly abandoned his investigation and focused all his attention on his daughter. Nor he or Rose were going to say it out loud, but they had seen this happen far too often to the children around here. One day they'd suddenly deteriorate, and within days they'd be dead.

But that wasn't going to happen to Leah. It just wasn't.

* * *

 

It was the middle of the night now and the Doctor wasn't sleeping a wink, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom resisting the overwhelming temptation to go to his daughter. He needed to calm down, he knew that. He kept telling himself that she was a Tyler with a Gallifreyan immune system. It had to get worse to get better. This was just a blip. She was in a good place. He and Rose were her parents. She was going to be fine.

But it didn't seem to be making him feel any better.

Rose was sleeping with her tonight in case something happened, so he was completely alone in the TARDIS. The TARDIS herself was being sympathetic. Usually she'd be pulling pranks on him and rearranging corridors so he had to walk a mile to get to the bathroom when he was practically bursting, but right now she was making sure he had everything just two steps away, which he appreciated. She'd even warmed the bed for him in advance and boiled the kettle before he even reached the kitchen. At first when he couldn't sleep she'd telepathically soothed him and relaxed him; playing gentle, sleepy music quietly.

But it just wasn't doing anything.

He was slightly relieved when he heard the sound of Rose's phone ringing, and eventually found it in his inside jacket pocket. He'd forgotten to give it back. He scooped it up and checked who was calling. It was Jack.

“Hi, Jack,” he answered redundantly.

Jack seemed to note his tone instantly. _“Doc? Are you okay?”_

“Not really,” the Doctor muttered in reply.

_“What? Leah's okay isn't she?”_

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but the sudden, choked sob that came from him surprised both him and Jack.

 _“Doc, tell me she's okay!”_ Jack demanded, panic in his voice.

“She's got worse, Jack,” he sobbed, suddenly unable to control himself. “Nothing's working, not drugs or liquids or anything...”

_“Where's Rose?”_

“She's sleeping with her tonight.”

_“You're on your own?”_

“Yeah.”

_“Come back to Torchwood.”_

“I can't, I need to stay here in case something happens...”

_“Doctor, they can manage without you. Come back here.”_

“But...”

 _“Come here or I'll use my manipulator,”_ Jack warned.

"It doesn't work."

_"Are you willing to risk that?"_

The Doctor sighed. “... Okay. On my way.”

* * *

 

Rose didn't hear the TARDIS churn out of existence, since she'd finally managed to get to sleep, but next to her Leah had been slipping in and out of an uncomfortable feverish sleep all night.

It was 3am when Leah next jerked awake. She was tired, her head was fuzzy, her vision was blurry and she felt so, so hot. She wanted to cry but it was as though all her tears had evaporated in the heat of her body, so she turned over with sluggish movements to try and get to sleep again, then suddenly caught a blurry figure out the corner of her eye.

She blinked, looked up again, and froze.

It was a clown, emerging through the end door and walking slowly down the aisle.

“Mummy,” Leah whispered, instantly frightened. The clown stopped at the sound of her voice, turning straight around to stare at her.

The clown's face was warped and twisted. Its big clown mouth was twisted up, sharp pointed teeth stained yellow and bared in the form of a horrific smile. Its eyes were just pits of black, the eyeliner defining them drawn downwards into tears. Thin eyebrows were arched up high on its forehead, its matted green hair sticking out 90 degrees from its head.

And it was staring straight at her.

Leah opened her mouth to scream, but the clown raised a hand with long, dirty fingernails, and pressed one finger to its lips. Leah froze instantly, absolutely petrified before the clown widened its horrific smile, casually turned and continued down the aisle, disappearing from sight.

* * *

 

Rose awoke to the feeling of Leah shaking her repeatedly, calling her over and over in a weak, terrified voice. She sat up immediately. “What? What is it?”

“Clown,” Leah croaked. “Clown!”

“What?” Rose asked tiredly, looking around but couldn't see anything remotely clown-like.

“'Round there,” she whispered urgently. It was hard to ignore the absolute terror in her voice.

Rose wasn't quite sure how seeing a clown at 3am in the middle of a UNIT-guarded alien hospital was possible but got up anyway, peeking around the side curtains down the aisle. There was no one there.

“Sweetheart, there's no one there,” she told Leah gently, moving back to her.

Leah suddenly began to cry. Rose took her into a hug, kissing her forehead. She was still a ball of fire.

“It was there,” she sobbed.

“Leah, you're so hot, Daddy said it's normal for you to hallucinate. You saw a clown earlier, remember? He came to cheer you up.”

She nodded. “Mummy, I'm scared,” she sobbed.

“I know, I know,” Rose assured her, stroking back her hair. “But I'm here and Daddy's in the Tardis, so there's nothin' to be scared about, yeah? We'd never let anythin' happen to you. Now go to sleep, you're exhausted.”

Leah eventually nodded, and closed her eyes. Rose just stroked back her hair for a moment, waiting for sleep to overtake the toddler before she lowered her head, and went to sleep.

Three minutes later, a heart rate monitor up the aisle flat-lined.  
  


 


	9. DI Doctor Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is another child death, and Leah's hallucinations become particularly worrying. The Doctor investigates further.

“Lirok died last night.”

The Doctor just stared at his partner that morning, his eyes wide in complete disbelief.

“I know,” Rose muttered, nodding. “Leah's started hallucinatin' too. She kept talkin' about this clown walkin' up the aisle, but there was no one there. It was weird cos we were asleep by quarter past three, and we got woken up by the noise at twenty past. He must've died in those five minutes.”

The Doctor didn't answer verbally, his eyes drifting off of her and staring at the end door of the ward. The cogs in his brain were whirring again. She knew by now when to be quiet to let him think. After a few moments his head snapped up again. “What did the clown look like?”

“Like one of those horror movie ones, I think.”

“And what time exactly was it Leah saw the clown?”

“Around 3am.”

He nodded, spun on his heel and started running down the aisle. “Back in a minute!” he yelled, disappearing out the far door without any further word of explanation. He was back to investigating again, obviously. There was just no stopping him.

She rolled her eyes, and went back to Leah.

* * *

 

“What are you looking for?” Martha asked as the Doctor sat in the security room five minutes later searching through the CCTV tapes.

“Both Leah and Lirok have talked about seeing someone on the ward minutes before the next child has died,” the Doctor began in explanation, fast forwarding through 2am. “And although it's not likely to be either Lirok's father or a low budget horror movie clown, there _may_ have been someone there. Their fevers may have just been distorting the person somehow.”

Martha nodded. “So if there was anyone there, they'd be on the CCTV.”

“Yup,” the Doctor replied, popping to 'p' before he finally reached 2:59am, and slowed the footage. He and Martha watched with complete unbroken concentration as they saw Leah suddenly awaken, turn over, and then absolutely freeze in position. She was staring into the aisle with wide eyes, and they could hear her voice in the silence, a terrified whisper...

_“Mummy...”_

After a few seconds Leah suddenly opened her mouth, as if to scream, but something made her stop. It was another few seconds before she tore her gaze away from whatever she was looking at to awaken her mum.

_“Mummy, Mummy, Mummy...”_

_“What? What is it?”_

_“Clown. Clown!”_

_“What?”_

_“'Round there...”_

Rose got up and looked, but obviously found no one. _“Sweetheart, there's no one there.”_

Leah suddenly began to cry. Rose took her into a hug, kissing her forehead.

_“It was there.”_

_“Leah, you're so hot, Daddy said it's normal for you to hallucinate. You saw a clown earlier, remember? He came to cheer you up.”_

She nodded. _“Mummy, I'm scared.”_

_“I know, I know. But I'm here and Daddy's in the TARDIS, so there's nothin' to be scared about, yeah? We'd never let anythin' happen to you. Now go to sleep, you're exhausted.”_

They settled down again, and the Doctor fast forwarded to quarter past. He and Martha watched for the whole five minutes, up to, including and after the moment Lorik had died. After all had been seen, the Doctor stopped the tape.

“They _were_ hallucinating then,” Martha summarised. “There was no one there.”

Th Doctor nodded, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “... Did Bri talk about hallucinating the night before he died? Or the Bizo the night before that?”

Martha nodded. “What are you thinking?”

“There's strain of mutated ZRI that can cause hallucinations to be solid. But I've never heard of these solid hallucinations to be murdering other people. The instinct not to kill another being is too strong, it would fight the hallucination on a subconscious level, it even happens with notorious serial killers in Volag-noc. There was a particularly murderous dictator who killed thousands without hesitation, and when he caught the mutated ZRI he vividly hallucinated murderous entities but his subconscious fought it killing anyone.”

“Maybe it's a new form...” Martha muttered. “One that can override the subconscious instinct?”

“That's saying that the kids have actually indirectly killed each other. If Leah hallucinated the clown last night and it killed Lorik, then she technically murdered him. Lorik murdered Bri with his father, Bri murdered the Bizo. So...”

“Pelo, the Akilian, has just spiralled down into fever,” Martha muttered. “If this is true then...” She paused, almost not wanting to say it. “... Pelo's going to kill Leah tonight. Then he's going to be killed by another hallucination tomorrow.”

The Doctor swallowed, and his body tensed. “But it's too systematic, how are these children becoming ill one after the other with such precise timing?”

Martha didn't have a reason for that.

The Doctor thought for a very long moment. “Nah,” he finally said, shaking his head. “This is ridiculous.” He got up out of the seat and shrugged on his coat. “Let me see Lorik's notes.”

“Thought you might want to,” Martha replied, opening the folder she was carrying and pulling out the notes to hand to him. His eyes ran down the page, and then a big frown appeared on his face.

“Why aren't his hallucinations noted down here?”

Martha joined in with his frown, moving forward to look. “They aren't? ...Oh.”

“Who's in charge here?” the Doctor asked quickly.

“Dr Johnston,” Martha replied, and got it instantly. “His office is this way.”

* * *

 

“Well, to be honest, I find it all a bit of a damp squib,” Dr Johnston laughed, pouring himself more tea. “Sir, I would not worry yourself. When a fever as high as some of the ones we've been having recently is present, it is very common for hallucinations to occur.”

“They need to be written down,” the Doctor said, beginning to get slightly annoyed at the man's apparently uncaring demeanour. “They need to be recorded in the notes. It's standard procedure.”

“Not here, I'm afraid,” Dr Johnston replied simply with his unwavering smile. “Imagine if we wrote down every time a child so much as coughed!” He laughed again. It sounded a lot like nails down a chalkboard to the Doctor's ears. “It would be utterly ridiculous.”

“Hallucinations are a _teeny_ bit different to coughing.”

“It is very natural for you to worry as a parent to a patient, of course,” Dr Johnston said happily. “I am aware your home planet may practice medicine a little differently, but I do assure you, here on Earth we are quite in control of the situation.”

“Three children have died in three days, all of them with no obvious reason. You call that 'in control'?” the Doctor asked in a voice far too calm to be sane.

“It is just one of those things,” Dr Johnston said, taking a sip of tea. “It is ridiculous to suggest their hallucinations could be killing each other. It is simply children's imagination.”

The Doctor's eyes widened, his fists clenching and his knuckles turning completely white in suppressed rage. Martha could see that he was quite obviously about to lose his temper, so she quickly thanked Johnston, took the fuming Time Lord's arm and pulled him back out of the door.

“ _How_ is he even a doctor?!” the Doctor squeaked.

“The rules work a little differently for the Unit hospital,” Martha told him gently. “Since alien medical care is nothing like human medical care the head doctor can choose whether or not for things like hallucinations to be noted. Dr Johnston probably doesn't feel they're important.”

 _“Not important?!”_ the Doctor squeaked again, and Martha could quickly see where this was headed.

“Forget him. We need to check Leah's strain of ZRI,” she suggested. “Does your scanner do that?”

He nodded, calming down slightly. “All right.”

* * *

 

The Doctor carried Leah back to the TARDIS, putting her to sleep with the needle gun before placing her in the scanner. It was ten, long minutes until the results were displayed, and the Doctor pulled a face.

“Is it the mutated strain?” Martha asked anxiously.

“Nope, it's just normal ZRI,” the Doctor muttered. “And... I'd be willing to bet the others had normal flu too.”

“So the hallucinations...” Rose began, frowning as she tried to figure it all out in her head.

“Really are just hallucinations, yes,” the Doctor completed. “Coincidental, but children are like that. In the case of Leah and Lorik's hallucinations, they must've subconsciously felt the dying child's distress on a low telepathic level, then created the image through the fever without even realising.”

“Leah didn't see her hallucination actually kill Lorik, though,” Rose pointed out.

“Yeah, but the presence was all there. And we haven't actually talked about what they're seeing. What was Lorik most scared of in the whole wide universe? His father.  The low telepathic 'distress signal' of sorts got sent to him, telling him unconsciously that Bri was dying. And Lorik was only a child. If you were an ill child with a raging fever and a father like his... Wouldn't you assume the absolute worst?”

“I guess,” Rose said. “But then why did Leah see a clown?”

“She was very ill all day,” the Doctor reasoned. “When that ward clown came to visit she was very, very agitated, scared and unhappy. Seeing the clown formed an imprint in her mind, and thanks to a couple of horror movies she's walked in on unexpectedly she twisted it into something she thought was the scariest thing in the world. She sensed Lorik was dying,  thought the worst, her brain tells her it obviously must be the evil B-movie clown doing the murdering and baam. Hallucination gets power.”

“So the hallucinations are harmless,” Rose said, still trying to figure it out.

“Very scary, but completely harmless.”

“This still doesn't explain the pattern,” Martha pointed out. “How are they getting the fever then spiralling down so precisely?”

“I had another thought about that,” the Doctor began, glancing between them. “What if it's not coincidence? What if... it's intentional?”

Rose and Martha stared at him, jaws agape.

“Are you sayin' there's someone here that's purposely makin' them ill?” Rose asked, her eyes wide.

“Maybe.”

“But we've been with Leah all the time.”

“No, we haven't,” the Doctor pointed out. “She slept on her own a couple of times. We left her alone just before she became worse.”

All three looked at Leah, lying there in the scanner still asleep.

“Watch for anyone suspicious,” the Doctor said, breaking the stunned silence. “A doctor prescribing something, a nurse administering something. Keep it all written down in a logbook. I'll stay with her today and tonight. Martha, stay with her tomorrow morning. Rose, the rest of the day and the night. We'll continue the rota. Nobody leaves her side.”  
  


 


	10. Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leah and the Doctor are attacked by the hallucination, and the Doctor continues to struggle to cope with the danger his daughter is in.

It was 2am, and the Doctor was sitting in the chair next to Leah's bed, the little girl still racked with fever and cuddling her bear Bundy tightly as she slept. He was now a father on edge, eyes snapping to the direction of every tiny creak and moan that came from anywhere in the ward.

“Daddy,” Leah suddenly whispered in the low light.

The Doctor jumped to alert, snapping out of his trance. “Thought you were asleep.”

“... I see him,” she whispered, staring at the doorway.

The Doctor looked at the doorway, but there was no one there.

“Don't worry, I'm here,” he whispered quickly, kissing her. “Go back to sleep.”

“Daddy,” she sobbed. “He coming in...”

“It's okay, you're fine, don't be scared. I'm here to protect you.”

“Daddy.” She had tears in her eyes, but still stared absolutely transfixed at the door.

“It's okay,” he repeated. “You're okay, it's just your fever playing with your mind and making you see things. Go to sleep.”

“No,” she squeaked, and the terror in her eyes was completely unsettling him. He knew real fear when he saw it. Real fear at _real_ things...

Then suddenly the door handle turned and opened... But there was no one pushing it.

“Daddy,” she squeaked, absolutely petrified as the Doctor froze. There was no one there. He couldn't see anything. But obviously there was...

The door closed quietly, and the Doctor could hear footsteps.

Then they stopped.

“Daddy...”

“Where is he?” the Doctor asked quickly.

“He look at me.”

“He's looking at you?” the Doctor repeated. Then he looked towards where he thought the invisible creature might be, eyes narrowing. “Who are you?” he asked. “Let me see you.”

“Daddy!” Leah suddenly gasped, her eyes moving slowly across the room, following the figure. “He coming to get you!”

“Hey!” the Doctor said as loudly as he dared. “This isn't a fair game, let me see you, maybe I can help you? Just talk to me. What's your name?”

There was only silence in return as Leah's eyes continued to move...

“Daddy!” she suddenly shrieked. “He reaching for your neck...”

The Doctor let go of Leah and reached in front of him blindly, trying to touch this being. But there was nothing but air beneath his fingers.

“Talk to me!” the Doctor demanded, still trying to find something to grab.

“DADDY!” Leah suddenly screamed and before he had time to react his face suddenly exploded with pain. It was such a surprise, that only when he fell backwards and his head connected with the bedside table did he realise that he'd probably been hit, and he was completely stunned for a few moments.

The next thing he knew, Leah was screaming at him; crying in absolute terror. He managed to scramble to his feet with his head spinning a fairground ride to see something had a hold of Leah's arm. She struggled desperately to get away but she was being pulled out of the bed...

“Get off of her!” the Doctor roared, suddenly exploding with rage. He ran to the other side of the bed and managed to finally get a hold of the invisible being, and received a blow to the stomach for it. But he wasn't giving up that easily, the invisible being was now carrying Leah, and she was screaming. The other kids in the ward were now awake, screaming and crying at the sight in front of them as the Doctor struggled to keep his hold.

“Let her go!” he demanded, and suddenly he'd lost his grip. He blindly reached out again but got another unexpected blow to the face. He staggered back, trying not to fall over as the invisible being began to carry Leah towards the door...

Suddenly the ward lights came on in a dazzling brightness, completely blinding the Doctor for a moment before he managed to focus, and found a nurse and Doctor Johnston in the doorway, staring at him in alarm. Leah was now on the floor as though dropped, crying her eyes out.

The Doctor ran to her instantly, scooping her up and staggering to the bed with a spinning head, sitting her down and holding her tightly.

“Leah,” he asked quickly. “Is he still here?”

Leah shook her head, and burst into more tears.

“What on...?” Dr Johnston began, staring at the Doctor's bloody nose as more nurses rushed in to calm down the other children.

The Doctor held his little girl tighter, not giving a damn about his bloody nose for the moment. He looked up at Johnston and the nurse, his face completely sincere.

“That thing you're putting down to kid's imagination? Well, it's real. And it's killing the children.”

* * *

 

“Just how _stupid_ are you!?” the Doctor yelled in absolute frustration to Johnston ten minutes later in his office, Leah still quietly sobbing into him with Rose next to him, and Martha on the other side trying to clean his wounds but not really getting anywhere as he kept jerking out of her reach. “You've got an invisible being killing the kids in your paediatric wards!”

“It's ridiculous,” Johnston told him, almost laughing at the possibility.

“You think I'm making this _up?!”_ the Doctor shouted angrily. Rose reached out to his shoulder, trying to calm him down but it was already apparent that wasn't going to happen as he pulled away from Martha trying to dab under his nose again. “Something invisible attacked me and tried to take my daughter! It's been here for a month already, killing the children!”

“I'm sorry, but you must've knocked your head...”

“Yeah, I knocked my head when I got punched in the face by something invisible!” the Doctor retorted.

Rose had seldom seen him so angry, and Leah hadn't said so much as a word since Rose had got there. She was huddled into her father, clinging onto his tie and Bundy with equal measure, sobbing quietly.

“Perhaps you should be assessed for concussion...” Doctor Johnston suggested.

“I'm not concussed!” the Doctor yelled, absolutely riled as he jumped to his feet, pressing Leah against his chest even more to protect her. “You need to shut down this hospital right now!”

“That is simply a no...”

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, absolutely fuming. “Fine!” he yelled, spun on his heel and stormed out of the office holding Leah tightly to him.

“Where are you goin'?” Rose asked quickly, rushing after him.

“I'm taking Leah back to Torchwood,” he replied simply, marching through reception and out the door, not even acknowledging Pam.

“But...” Martha began, struggling to keep up.

“Look, I'll figure something out, but Leah isn't staying here. It's not safe. I'll teach Jack or something... I'm taking her back to Torchwood, then I'll come back and sort this out.”

“Doctor, listen to me...” Martha implored, but he ignored her.

“Daddy.”

The Doctor stopped walking at Leah's voice, looking down at the two-year-old he was holding so tightly. “What?”

“No, I stay,” she said simply.

The Doctor seemed a little surprised at that. “No, Leah, this thing... If it gets you...”

“No worry,” she told him. “I help?”

“I can't let you stay here.”

“You no see it, Daddy, please, I stay and help, 'k?”

“No, Leah!” the Doctor suddenly said loudly, harshly. “You're not staying and that's that!”

“Doctor,” Rose said softly, taking hold of his arm. “Calm down.”

“I _am_ calm!” he practically yelled, pulling out of her grip and starting off again... Then suddenly stopped dead, looking at the floor. “... No, I'm not,” he muttered.

Rose took Leah out of his arms, giving her to Martha before she approached her husband, bunching up her sleeve and dabbing his still bleeding nose.

“Talk to me,” she whispered.

“I was... so scared,” he admitted, his voice wavering. “That thing had her, and I couldn't see it, I couldn't stop it. If it had taken her... I don't know what I'd have done... She was... I was...”

He stopped talking, swallowing. Rose stopped dabbing, drew him into a hug and kissed him.

“It's okay,” she told him. “We're gettin' guards and everythin', we're gonna sort this out, okay? Leah's gonna be fine.”

“I know,” he muttered, holding her tightly in return. “This is just... You realise this is the first time she's been in proper danger? I don't think I'm reacting very well.”

Rose smiled a little at that. “I'll say. Look, she wants to stay and help and we can't see this thing, yeah? So let's just let her. You know it's so hard for me to say this but if she wants to stay... Maybe she's ready to start savin’ the world?”

The Doctor swallowed. “... Yeah,” he muttered, then looked at Rose. “You're very into this,” he commented.

She nodded. “I knew already when she was born that her life's gonna be put in danger a lot, but I kinda also knew that that's just the way it's gonna be and she should start learnin’ to deal with it herself as soon as possible, yeah? She shouldn't rely on you to save her life as much as I do,” she jested.

He smiled at that. “Yeah,” he said again, then kissed her again. “Okay, I'm letting this happen. But on my terms, okay?” he said, looking at Martha.

She nodded.

 

 


	11. Trevor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor's falls into his worst state yet. Jack discovers his case and the hospital deaths are linked, and goes to the hospital to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off we go again! :D

There had been a particular time in Rose and the Doctor's life together, right at the start of their intimate relationship around three years ago when they had travelled to a planet called Kola. There had been a festival going on and people from the entire surrounding galaxy were there to celebrate an alignment of the planets that only happened once every thousand years. But a terrorist organisation had been hiding in the shadows, and a bomb had exploded halfway through the closing concert.

As thousands of beings fled in terror Rose had completely lost the Doctor; swept up by the crowd and straight into malicious hands taking advantage of a bad situation. Before she had known it she'd been drugged and bundled into a van with tens of other terrified woman, then driven off to - what she had eventually worked out - be sold into slavery. She had had all faith in the Doctor to save her of course, but the worst week of her life had gone by excruciatingly slowly and she hadn't seen anything of him.

She was sold by auction to some weird old alien man, who instantly chained his new slave and dragged her by the neck to a deserted alleyway. She had only dreaded to think what he was going to do to her, so when she had tried to resist and escape he had yelled abuse and jabbed her with some weapon, and she was given a _huge_ , painful electric shock.

Then the Doctor had appeared, seemingly completely out of nowhere. She had never been more thankful to see him in her life. He'd grabbed the man and shoved him to the ground, buzzing her free of her restraints with the sonic before taking her hand and pulling her away in a run. But it wasn't until Rose felt a strange, warm feeling of something spreading across her back did a sudden, _unbelievably_ painful burning sensation stab into the small of her back. It was quite shortly after that she'd realised she'd been shot.

She had collapsed instantly of course, crying out in utter agony. Her teary eyes had looked up to her partner, barely focusing through the shock and the pain, seeing him standing there staring at her like he couldn't quite believe what he was looking at. Then as quick as the flip of a coin his entire face had turned into something she couldn't even describe. Those eyes. Usually big, brown and happy, had suddenly turned so cold, so angry, so distant from any remnant of sanity whatsoever.

 _Nothing_ like the Doctor she knew.

He had stared at her with those horrible eyes, only for a moment, but for a flicker of that moment she had thought he was going to kill her. But then he had turned, looked in the direction of her enslaver, and strode straight towards him. She'd passed out then.

When she'd woken up she'd found herself back in the TARDIS infirmary with the Doctor sitting by her bed. The moment she'd opened her eyes he had been all over her like a rash, kissing her constantly, apologising repeatedly for not finding her sooner and on the verge of tears.

He had never told her what he'd done to the man, and she hadn't felt inclined to ask. But seeing as his clothes from that day had completely disappeared she could only think the worst. Those eyes had been the window to the darkest depths of his soul. She knew he'd been a soldier and an assassin in the Time War, trained not to care, not to feel – just to kill on cue. He had changed since then of course, renouncing violence altogether. But for that moment, that brief moment, upon seeing her bound and bloody body on the hard ground... the bond had flared and perhaps he had changed back, just for a second.

He would occasionally flashback to the Time War like shell-shocked soldiers she'd heard about, waking up in cold sweats and screaming out in the night.  She'd never really asked him about it, because she knew she'd never get a conversation from it. In fact, the only conversation they'd really had on the subject was her asking him why she'd never noticed all the night terrors and flashbacks before they'd been torn from each other the first time. He had admitted that he had, he always had, it was just he knew how to be quiet. He'd never been open about it because he was terrified that she'd realise he was a mass murderer and be scared of him.

But those eyes...

She'd seen them flash up every now and again since that first time, and she now dreaded it. It was as though he had a split personality. One Doctor was the one she loved, intelligent, beautiful, happy and cute to boot. But the other Doctor, the dark Doctor (or 'Trevor' as Jack called him to try and lighten the situation) was this horrible, manipulating maniac who'd killed millions and was intelligent on an entirely different level. It wasn't until Trevor came out that first time did she really realise just how intelligent the Doctor was. With Trevor he entered a whole new level of consciousness. Like those animals with finely tuned hunting skills. Listening to every tiny sound, every little obsolete movement, becoming attune to their surroundings before they pounced on their prey.

But he'd seemed fine until they had got back to the ward, and she didn't quite know why he'd suddenly turned. Maybe it was coming back to the scene of the incident, or the reality had just found him. Whatever the reason, he'd stayed by his daughter's bedside for every second after the attack. He was holding his sonic screwdriver as though it were a deadly weapon, his eyes flickering around the dark room like he was _daring_ the killer to strike. Rose herself was lying on the bed next to sleeping Leah, stroking the girl’s hair and staring at her partner without saying a word. Just gazing at those eyes.

She didn't like him like this at all, but the fuse had just been lit by the attack and there was now nothing she could do. He hadn't even cleaned up from being smacked around by the invisible entity; dried blood still around his nose and mouth. And he didn't say a word all night. He just sat there, guarding his two girls.

In fact, the three hour silence to 6am became so normal that when her phone suddenly rang with the tinny sound of Lady Gaga's Pokerface it made her jump about five foot in the air.

“Hello?” she asked.

 _“Hey, Rose, where's the Doctor?”_ Jack asked.

“Here,” she said, tapping her partner on the shoulder. Without a word to her he took the phone and pressed it to his ear.

“Yeah,” he said shortly, then listened. “... Jack, I can't come back right now. … No. … You're a big boy, handle it yourself. … Quite a lot has happened. … She's fine. … I'm not coming back.”

“Go back,” Rose interrupted suddenly.

He looked at her. “No, I'm staying here.”

“The Unit guards will get here soon and it doesn't attack in the day,” Rose reasoned, trying to be his voice of calm in the stressful situation. “Go back.”

“I'm staying,” he grated.

“Doctor, I'll stay, I'll look after her, and Martha'll be here in a minute.”

“What use are you two? Stupid apes,” he spat, and Rose genuinely felt like he'd just punched her in the face. The shock on her face must've jolted him into remembering that he actually liked her, as suddenly those eyes turned from anger to horror at what he'd just said.

“Rose, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...” he started in a clumsy gabble.

“Right,” she said brusquely with narrowed eyes, cutting him off. “Go back to Jack if he needs you.”

He swallowed. Those eyes of before were completely gone now. “... Okay. On my way,” he directed down the phone, then hung up. He looked at her like a kid who'd just smashed her window with his football.

“I'm sorry...” he tried again.

“Go back to Jack,” she said again, measured and calm.

“Rose...”

“Get out,” she snapped. “And for god's sake, clean your blood up, yeah?”

He finally fell silent, just sitting there for a moment before getting up from the chair. He leant forward to kiss a still sleeping Leah, before making to kiss his partner. But she deliberately pushed him away, turning her head to look away from him. It broke her heart to do it, but she knew she had to. Trevor was best killed as soon as possible, even if it took a bit of tough love.

“I'm sorry,” he muttered, and left.

It was twenty seconds before her phone rang again,  thankfully still not waking up Leah.

 _“Rose?”_ Jack asked.

“He just left, he'll be there in a bit.”

_“Don't worry 'bout that, did I hear Trevor?”_

“Yep,” she replied, swallowing. “Leah was... Something happened last night.”

_“What's the problem?”_

“The Doctor was with her last night, and they were attacked by something invisible. It tried to take Leah.”

There was a pause.

_“... I'll come back with the Doctor. See you in a bit.”_

He hung up.

* * *

 

Jack grabbed the Doctor's arm the instant he'd stepped out of the TARDIS door, pulling him forcibly across Torchwood.

“Need to show you something,” he began, taking the Doctor in the direction of the computer bank. “It's about my investigation.”

“Jack, I don't have _time_ to...”

“No, really,” Jack interrupted. “You're gonna find it interesting.”

The Doctor sighed and resigned to it, letting Jack lead him to the computers. There Jack sat him down in the chair, spinning him around to face the screens.

“I've been tracing this hostile alien for days. It's been absolutely everywhere – these are the trace locations,” Jack said, pointing to the computer on the left showing the Doctor red blips all up and down the UK and Ireland on a map. “I've been going to them and checking them up. For the most part the traces have just faded away...”

“And?” the Doctor wondered impatiently.

“Lemme finish,” Jack urged. “In every location of a trace, there's always some story about a person that died in the exact spot of the trace. I mean, literally right on it. And look...” He pointed to the trace location map again. “Where's the Unit hospital?”

The Doctor leaned forward, scrutinising the map... and suddenly realised. “Oh,” he muttered.

“Exactly,” Jack confirmed. “You said you've got kids dying? All the trace locations have been people 18 and under. 179 attacks, all of them teens or kids.”

“We're investigating the same creature,” the Doctor summarised, looking up at Jack.

The ex-Time Agent nodded. “Compare notes. Then I'm coming back to the hospital with you.”

“What?”

“Rose told me about last night,” Jack explained, and caught the Doctor's expression so he continued. “Ella's gone, she died forever ago and I need to focus. I love Leah, you know that. I really love that kid but now she's in danger and you really can't do this on your own. I'm coming to protect her.”

The Doctor slowly but surely broadened a smile, every centimetre of it filled with utter gratitude. “Thank you, Jack.”

* * *

 

Leah was beyond overjoyed to see her uncle for the first time in almost a week, the gigantic smile on her face being the first her parents had seen for what felt like forever.

“Hey, you!” Jack said happily, kissing her tightly and kissing her head. “How're you feeling?”

Leah made her 'bleh' face. “Sick. And a thingy's tryna kill me.”

“Sounds like an average day to me,” Jack joked, kissing her again. “Don't worry, me and you are gonna take over and sort this thing out, right?”

“Right,” she repeated, still beaming away.

“Gang, let's talk about a plan,” the Doctor said, gesturing to the far door.

“Back in a bit,” Jack said to the girl, getting up. She looked disappointed that he was leaving so fast, but perked up when he gave her a constant farewell wave whilst walking backwards to the door to leave her in the protection of the UNIT guards.

* * *

 

They collected Martha on the way out, going to a small, deserted conference room with three chairs, a table and a whiteboard. They all took a seat, except for the Doctor, who stood at the head of the table. It was as though they were planning some kind of bank heist.

“Okay,” the Doctor began once they were all settled, palms flat on the table as he leant to them all. “Facts we know about this creature, shoot.”

“Shape-changer, or something similar,” Jack began. “Uses kid's fears to create the image.”

“Attacks at night,” Martha put in.

“Only kids can see it?” Rose suggested. “And there was no image on CCTV.”

“Only attacks kids,” Jack said next.

Martha nodded at that. “It can touch and make sound.”

“It's nationwide,” Jack pointed out.

“What kind of time frame?” the Doctor asked suddenly.

“Within minutes of each other,” Jack replied. “So either it can transmat or...”

“There's a whole ton of them,” Rose completed quietly.

“We'll assume the latter,” the Doctor said, wincing. “The fever, that's the really important thing. How are all the kids getting fever one after the other so precisely?”

No one answered that, so the Doctor looked between Martha and Rose. They gazed at him.

“You still think...?” Martha tested.

“Yep,” he replied.

“Think what?” Jack asked.

“That something may _intentionally_ be making them ill. Makes them weaker, less able to scream, less able to fight. Making them very easy prey. Or, in fact, whatever's doing this might not have anything to do with the creature. They could just... Just be doing it for fun. And the creature is taking advantage of that.”

They suddenly all felt very cold inside. Even the Doctor.

He took a breath, and continued. “So Martha, I need you to spy. Keep an eye on all of the kids, take notes, see if we can find who thinks it's fun to make children seriously ill. Also make sure all the Unit guards know their post, not one more child is going to die.”

She nodded, and quickly went to do just that.

The Doctor watched her go, then looked at the two people left sitting there. “Jack, I need you to research. Find out if there's any mention, even a mythical one, about a creature with malicious intent that only children with fever can see. Possibly a shape-changer or a telepathic filter, or something similar. Then we might know what we're dealing with here and it'll hopefully give us a starting point. Use the Tardis’ databases.”

Jack gave an obedient half salute, and then left out the door.

Finally, the Doctor looked at Rose. Then in the blink of an eye he turned from master-plan-to-eradicate-mass-alien-threat maker to a pathetic puddle of 'boy done wrong' at her feet.

“I'm so sorry,” he muttered, kneeling down next to her chair so she could talk down to him. “It was really wrong to say that... I was being really rude and obnoxious and stupid and it was all my fault. Well, of course it was all my fault, really, because I'm the one that said it, so it could hardly be yours. Well, sometimes it is because you can be irritating...” He suddenly stopped himself, his eyes widening in horror as he processed what he'd just said. “But not in a bad way! I like your irritating nature... Wait. I didn't say that... Err, I mean, you're not irritating that much, every now and then, you know. Like, umm, once in a blue moon, as you humans say... But you know, that's okay, because I'm irritating too so it's like we're mutual in err... Irritating-ness.”

Rose raised an eyebrow.

“But anyway,” he continued brightly. “I just couldn't stop myself saying that... And I really don't think what I said, well, of course I know I'm probably cleverer than you and Martha but you know that already... though I'm not saying you're stupid at all! I mean, I wouldn't love you if you were stupid. Ha, it's sort of like if you were your mum we'd have never had Leah that's for sure... Um... Not that I'm calling your mum stupid or anything. I love your mum. Just not in that way. I mean, not in a baby making way. I'd never do that with her. Though she's a really nice person. Sometimes. Sort of platonic love, between us...”

It was a strange feeling. The Doctor was very aware he was talking, but it was like his brain had completely gone to mush and he no longer had any control over what he was saying.

“... But I guess what I meant by that was that I just felt like I could do a better job. Not that your job would be any less better than mine, actually it'd probably be better... Ha, I just said less better. That doesn't even make sense. Less better. Oh blimey. What was I saying? I've forgotten... Err... Well, I guess... So, yeah. I love you. Forgive me?”

There was a very long moment of complete silence as Rose took this verbal car crash in.

“... Bloody hell, you'd better be glad I don't love you for your apologising skills,” she eventually said, laughing and pulling him into a tight hug, kissing him. “Really bad apology accepted. But please don't talk about having babies with my mum again.”

“... I said that?” the Doctor asked, still knelt on the floor in a complete daze.

Rose giggled and kissed him again, pulling him up. “Come on, we've got kids to save.”

 

 


	12. Breakaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation reveals a possible identity for the creatures, and the Doctor forms a plan.

As night drew in Jack was still researching, so the Doctor took guard over Leah's bed despite the fact all the UNIT guards were ready in the ward with him. He was a lot more relaxed than the previous night, lying in the bed with his little girl clinging onto him. He was keeping his body temperature low for her still fevered body, acting like a big icy teddy bear for her to hold as she slept.

He still had his sonic screwdriver in hand though, prepared for a potential attack. He wasn't sleeping, just staring at the ceiling trying to work everything out in his head. He would act depending what research Jack came up with. He'd never encountered a creature like this before, and to be completely honest it was terrifying him. Leah would have died if he hadn't been there.

But if she wanted to help, then he had to let her. Being in danger was part and package of being one of the TARDIS family. Rose had been right. He needed to step back and let her experience a bit of risk. She was only two, but she was ready, and she _did_ need to learn as soon as possible. He just had to keep at a distance, watching, waiting, ready to catch her if she fell.

He looked left at his sleeping daughter; her tiny, fragile body, her long brown soft locks around a face with his own eyes, and sighed. It all made so much sense in his head, but why was it just so damn difficult to do?

His thought trail was interrupted by a wild Jack appearing at the foot of the bed, holding a piece of paper.

“Only info I could find,” he whispered, handing the Doctor the piece of paper. “You're gonna love it.”

The Doctor looked down at the piece of paper. It was a print-out...

* * *

_“The name means "child death". This book says he feeds off of children by sucking the life out of them. Ugh! But anyway, afterwards, it looks like they died because they were sick.”_ \- Cordelia Chase

Der Kindestod was a demon that preyed on sick children.

**Biography**

Der Kindestod killed children by sucking the life out of them. Afterwards, it looks like they died of fever. Therefore it preyed on children who were already ill, leaving little evidence to suspect their deaths were unnatural.

**Powers and abilities**

_"Uh, the, um, the Kindestod gorges by sitting atop his prey, pinning it down, uh, helplessly. Then he slowly draws out the life. I-it must be, uh, h-horrifying for the victim."_ Rupert Giles

Der Kindestod was invisible to all adults and could only be seen by the feverishly ill. His eyeballs extended and latched onto people, leeching their life force.

**Notable Powers**

Invisibility to all except the feverishly ill.

Extendable eye stalks.

Life force absorption.

**Name**

Der Kindestod is german and literally means "the child's death". In german this term is used in "plötzlicher Kindestod", the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

* * *

The Doctor looked at the picture. It was a demonic face with white, red-rimmed eyes and a mouth filled with jutty teeth. Then, finally, he looked at the source of information.

“Really?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at Jack.

“Told you you'd love it,” Jack replied.

“This is a printout from Wikipedia... It's an antagonist from an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“But you gotta admit, it's pretty close,” Jack said. “Check the back.”

The Doctor flipped over the paper to see a few of Jack's scribbled notes. Some words about possible species that could be similar, but the words **Cezat species** was underlined at the bottom.

“Heard of it?” Jack asked.

The Doctor shook his head. “What is it?”

“I don't even know, in every search I did the name came up but I couldn't find any profile on it, except that it was a species, and this weird identification number.” He indicated the number at the bottom of the page. **DSSR005-C**. “Mean anything to you?”

“No,” the Doctor muttered, flipping the paper back over to check the front again, thinking for a moment before giving the paper back to Jack. “Let Rose and Martha know, we'll all talk at eight.”

Jack nodded and disappeared, just as there was a little moan from next to him and he looked down to see Leah was waking up.

“Daddy,” she moaned.

“What?” he asked quickly, anxiously. “Is he here?”

She looked up for a moment, then shook her head and moved to hold him a little tighter. “Can I... Can I go home now please?”

It hit him like a knife in the chest, and suddenly he was falling head-first into the biggest dilemma of his life. He wanted _so_ much to submit to her request; to just pick her up, run out the door and never look back. But... this was just a flash of nerves from her, he knew. He _could_ talk her around.

But he _could_ take advantage of it instead. He _could_ say, “all right-y then, let's go home! Banana milkshakes all round!” but that would only be selfish. He was all ready to get her as far away as possible after the attack but it hadn't been Rose that had stopped him, or Martha, or even himself. It had been Leah. She had _asked_ to stay. She _wanted_ to.

He was truly beyond hooked around her little finger.  From the moment she'd been born he'd done absolutely everything he could to make her happy; submitting to her every whim at the drop of a finger. The mere _thought_ of her being in the tiniest bit of danger was killing him inside. But he couldn't just whisk her away. Not this time. Things had changed.

For the first time in Leah's life he wasn't going do what she wanted in a flash. He was going to try and make her realise she still wanted to be here.

He swallowed, bracing himself, and then began. “Why do you want to go home? I thought you wanted to stay and help?”

She sniffed again, her eyes watering. “I scared, Daddy.”

He reached out and squeezed her hand a little to reassure her. “It's normal to be scared, and being scared doesn't make you a coward or incapable. Being brave isn't about not feeling scared, it's about being absolutely terrified but doing what you have to do anyway.”

“You're not ever scared,” she told him quietly, looking away.

“Hey, look at me,” he said and she looked back, her eyes still watering. He offered a smile. “The truth is, I'm _constantly_ scared. All day, every day. I'm scared of the monsters, I'm scared of their weapons and I'm scared I'll fail one day. I'm scared for you and your Mummy so much, because at any moment... things could go wrong. I know that. And I'm absolutely terrified of it. But I do what I do because no one else will. I think you understand that, don't you?”

She nodded again.

“I know you can do this, because you're so beautiful, so brave, so intelligent... you're my daughter. I love you so much. This _is_ dangerous, you know that, and I know that. You could get hurt doing it, and believe me... That little fact is screaming at me. Because if you ever got hurt... I'd cry so hard. You're my little girl, but you're growing up so fast and it's time I stepped back. I trust you, I really do. I know you're ready for this. What d'you say?”

Leah swallowed, looking at him again. “... Okay,” she finally answered.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said, before giving him a little, adorable smile. “I fix this, no worry.”

“I will worry, but I know you'll prove me wrong,” he said, returning her smile. “Now go to sleep, we've got bad people to beat in the morning. I love you.”

She giggled quietly. “Okay. I love you too, Daddy.”

As she fell asleep once again he held her closer, hoping he'd done the right thing.

* * *

The Doctor had been pacing up and down the room for about five minutes now – Rose was sure he was starting to wear a hole in the floor. His eyes were fixed to the ground, flickering around with those millions of cogs turning around trying to process infinite complex mad strategies with the new information. Rose, Martha and Jack were sitting in absolute silence, only moving to look at each other and raise eyebrows at the Doctor in true 'Doctor mode'.

Suddenly he spun around and slammed his fists on the table with a yell of, “okay!” making everyone jump quite a distance in the air. He didn't seem to register that, just panning around at them all seriously. “I've got a plan. But it's going to be risky. So I need everyone to just do what I tell them with none of the usual, 'Doctor, Doctor, tell me what's going on right now!', all right?”

Martha, Jack and Rose all looked at each other for a moment, eyebrows lowering before they all looked back at him and nodded.

He smiled appreciatively. “Rose, I need you on defence. Stay here, look after Leah.” He turned to Jack next. “Jack, I'm gonna need you with me and Martha, we're all going for a quick trip in the Tardis to Birmingham.”

“Why?” Martha asked.

He paused for a moment, his eyes flickering over the crowd of confused humans before he took a breath.

“Martha, get me into the Unit Medical Research Facility.”


	13. Something Taken, Something Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Martha and Jack break into UNIT. Rose and Leah are attacked.

They landed the TARDIS outside the UNIT Research Facility at 14:58. Jack was told to stay behind in the TARDIS for the moment and only emerge if there was any trouble whilst the Doctor and Martha ventured out, slipping out of view of the perimeter guards and into the entrance.

They had landed at the time of the 3 o'clock guard change, so they had precisely fifteen seconds to get through the gate unnoticed once the switchover began.

“Doctor, I know I said I wouldn't ask, but _please_ tell me what we're doing here, and why we're creeping around?” Martha asked in a low whisper.

“We're stealing a disease,” he whispered in a blunt reply.

Martha's eyes widened instantly. “You're joking.”

“'Fraid not,” he replied, raising a hand to silence her. He peeked through the gap in the door intently for a few seconds before he suddenly grabbed the handle, pushed open the door and sprinted to the gate. Martha caught up with him, was about to open the gate when she realised something that made her completely freeze.

“Open the gate!” the Doctor hissed after barely three seconds had gone by.

“... They can track it as being my key-card, time it with the theft...” Martha whispered urgently. “I only just got out of what you did last time, I'll lose my job...”

 _“Your job?!”_ the Doctor practically shrieked in a whisper, completely disbelievingly. “I don't _care_ about your job and _neither_ should you! Open the gate, _now_ , Martha!”

That spurred her into action. She ran the key-card home, looked into the retina scanner and with four seconds to spare they made it into the UNIT building.

The Doctor didn't say anything after that, just led her down the menagerie of corridors towards their ultimate destination – the Disease Centre. They met no one, managing to get to it within two minutes. The Doctor pushed open the door and stepped inside, going to the back room where Mace had intended to take him before.

In the back room there were all kinds of high-tech science equipment, and racks of sealed Petri dishes that weren't labelled – obviously the diseases that Mace had wanted the Doctor to identify. The Doctor instantly commandeered a microscope and took a handful of Petri dishes.

“Watch the door,” he ordered Martha, and began to examine the first dish under the microscope. After a few moments he shook his head, shoved it in his right coat pocket and began to examine the next one.

* * *

It was 3 o'clock in UNIT and Leah wanted to have a walk.

Rose couldn't blame her, she'd been completely bedridden with fever and hadn't really been up and about since she and the Doctor had taken her to the play-park. So they’d had a little exploration around the hospital - been to the little shop of course, but hadn’t been able to buy anything what with a distinct lack of money. They’d been to the restaurant where someone had been in the middle of a birthday party and consequently they had  been invited to join, but Rose could see Leah was already flagging and needed to go back to bed. So she’d respectfully declined, scooped Leah up and made her way back in the general direction of paediatrics.

Ten minutes later, she was still walking, and she had absolutely no idea where they were. The signs seemed to have run out a while ago. Despite how light Leah was she was beginning to feel like a sack of bricks in Rose’s arms.

“Are we lost?” Leah wondered as they arrived at yet another empty corridor.

Immediately Rose flashed back to a holiday with her mum in Norfolk. “We’re not lost, we’re takin’ the scenic route,” she found herself saying, word for word what her mum had said where they’d been standing in the middle of Cromer next to a Lawn Tennis and Squash Association car park. She stopped, thought about that, then added, “oh my god I’m turnin’ into your grandma.”

Leah didn’t laugh, just looking at the corridor they were headed down. “Where's Daddy and Unka Jack?” she wondered.

“You know Daddy; he never tells anyone what he's doin',” Rose replied, laughing. “He's gone with Auntie Martha and Uncle Jack somewhere in the Tardis. Why? You bored of me?”

Leah giggled. “No. But I never said good bye to him.”

Rose stopped suddenly, frowning at the girl's sentence. Like she didn't expect to see him again. “He's comin’ back, Leah.”

“I know,” Leah replied, then lifted her finger to the end of the empty corridor. “But the monster is standing right there and he gonna kill me now.”

* * *

“They've changed you,” the Doctor suddenly broke the silence without taking his eyes from the microscope.

Martha turned away from the door, looking at him with confusion. “Sorry?”

“Unit. They've turned you into a soldier.”

Martha found herself a little bit insulted at that. “You're one to talk.”

“What?”

“I think you might be conveniently forgetting how much of that was you.”

“I didn't turn you into a soldier,” the Doctor said thinly. “I didn't teach you to follow orders. I didn't take any kind of command or treat you as inferior, I levelled with you on so many things. I trusted you with my life on several occasions. I didn't tell you to worry more about your job than the endangerment of children's lives, or to worry more about 'authority' when UNIT have got a biological disaster waiting to happen in these four walls. The Martha I taught would've risked everything to save the kid’s live, to destroy these diseases.”

“I can't believe you're trying to blame me for this. You got me the job!”

“It was a mistake.”

“Oh wow, he's admitting a mistake!” she exclaimed sarcastically. “The stuff I've been through for you, the stuff my family went through, all because of you!”

“I gave you all the chances to tell your family about me, but you didn't take it. You decided to keep it from them. I don't blame you, Rose did the same, Donna didn't tell her mum either but her granddad knew. But I wasn't the one that called up the Master telling him exactly where I was.”

“She was scared for my life! And you don't even know the half of what happened to my family on the Valiant!”

“Oh, I know more than you do,” the Doctor grated, and before she could even reply to that he changed the subject. “So, how's Tom?”

“We got divorced.”

“... Oh. Sorry.”

“Don't just change the subject, what d'you mean you...”

Suddenly an extremely loud wailing alarm began, taking Martha completely by surprise. Red lights started flashing and instantly she forgot about their argument. “They're onto us!”

The Doctor was still checking Petri dishes. “Not this one, not this one, no, no, no, no...”

Suddenly there were footsteps from the outer corridor, and Martha saw a silhouette of several heads running past the end door.

“Doctor!” she hissed.

“This one!” the Doctor suddenly whispered, enthused. He grabbed the Petri dish he was examining and shoved it into his inside jacket pocket. He drew out the sonic before grabbing her arm and leading her to the outer door.

A quick glance told them guards were everywhere, but the way to the outside seemed to be clear. So they bolted out of the door and ran down the corridor. Instantly they were noticed.

“Stop, or we'll shoot!” the guards yelled from behind them, but of course they didn't. They reached the entrance and Martha led the Doctor out, dodging the angry security guard and heading straight back towards the TARDIS.

The guards opened fire from the entrance as the Doctor and Martha were mere metres from the TARDIS, Martha only faltered when she heard a glancing bullet whiz by her ear, the Doctor’s cry and a body hit the floor beside her.

* * *

Rose's heart was instantly hammering in her chest. She couldn't see anything, but the footsteps echoing on the floor of the empty, silent corridor made it all too clear that there was indeed something there. So she turned, and ran.

The corridor was long. So very long. Rose couldn't even believe they'd come this far and she had no idea where anyone else was. It was as though they'd wandered into a part of the hospital that no one had even discovered yet, so right now, she was completely alone. She just had to run, get Leah away from the monster.

“Mummy!” Leah cried from over her shoulder. “He's comin'!”

She accelerated to every single modicum of speed she could muster, but the end door didn't really seem to be getting any closer...

“MUMMY!” Leah shrieked, and suddenly something grabbed her shoulder, yanking her back in a stumble. She barely had enough time to process this before something grabbed her around the neck, lifting her up into the air...

“Let go!” she rasped, struggling desperately but all the fight was quickly evaporating from her. She lost her hold on Leah and the two-year-old crashed to the floor, but the girl jumped up in an instant flood of tears, screaming out for the monster to let her mummy go.

“Run, Leah...” Rose gasped, but for a moment the two-year-old just stood there, frozen to the spot. Rose forced more air into her lungs, sucking in the breath just to muster a yell of, “RUN, LEAH!”

The girl obediently turned on her heel, and ran. The second she turned to go the grip around Rose's throat tightened and without any warning whatsoever Rose abruptly felt herself be thrown side-wards into the wall, head-first.

As she sank to the floor in a daze, she could see Leah suddenly get stopped by the invisible monster, the girl's screams fading in and out of Rose's distorted hearing. Then something had Leah in its grip. And Rose couldn't do anything about it.

She could only watch her daughter helplessly get dragged away as she finally sank into unconsciousness.

 

 


	14. The Year That Never Was

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Doctor's head wound is treated, Martha discovers more about the Year That Never Was. The Doctor receives a call from UNIT about Rose and Leah.

The Doctor had been unconscious in the TARDIS infirmary for two minutes, lying haphazardly on one of the beds with Martha tending to his head wound. It had been an extremely close call, but fortunately Jack had been hovering around the TARDIS console and had caught what had happened on the TARDIS monitor, so had instantly dived out to grab the Doctor's arm and drag him through the dirt and in through the TARDIS doors in the nick of time.

UNIT had been trying to break down the door ever since but they weren't about to get through, so Jack and Martha had both decided to ignore them and just focus their attention on the Doctor. Thankfully the bullet had only grazed and stunned him.

After he had woken up, as per usual he'd been the worst patient in the world and Martha was beginning to lose her patience.

“Really, I'm fine, it'll heal...” he was saying, reeling his head from her needle and cotton.

“You need stitches,” Martha repeated for the fifth time, trying desperately not to yell at him as she reached out again.

“I don't...”

“For god's sake, Doctor, _listen_ to me, okay?” Martha snapped, pulling his head to her roughly.

“Hey!” he protested, pulling his head away again.

“Stop moving your head!”

“I don't need stitches! I'll heal, you need to learn about Gallifreyan biology a bit more... You're quite thick on it.”

The cold, eerie silence after that sentence gave Martha enough time to react. Her eyes became so icy they could've sank the Titanic.

“All right, don't have any stitches, then!” she snapped, dropping everything she was holding and storming off out of the door.

The Doctor fell into silence, slightly surprised at Martha's sudden angry reaction. Then he looked at Jack, who was standing there frowning slightly.

He turned, and saw the Doctor looking at him. “You'd better say sorry.”

“What for?” the Time Lord asked, genuinely puzzled.

“You're being a dick,” Jack said straight. “I know you're probably a bit stressed with Leah and everything but you're being rude, so say sorry.”

“Was I being rude? I didn't mean to...”

“Stay here, I'll go and talk to her,” Jack said quickly, and ran out of the door.

* * *

He found Martha just outside the infirmary, pacing up and down with her fists clenched. The moment she sensed Jack's presence she looked up, her eyes narrowed.

“Who the _hell_ does he think he is?” she yelled.

“Go easy on him, he's having a hard time with Leah,” Jack said quickly, resting a hand on her shoulder. “He doesn't mean to be rude, you know that.”

“He's got no right!” Martha spat. “He had a go at me earlier and now he's calling me stupid!”

Jack raised his eyebrows at the former of her sentence. “He had a go at you earlier?”

“Some rubbish about me changing and how the Valiant was my fault!”

Jack winced at that. The Year That Never Was had become an extremely sore subject between them all, dividing them completely. “Look, he's just stressed. Whoever started the conversation about the Valiant...”

“He star-”

“I don't wanna _know_ who started it!” Jack interrupted in a snap, and suddenly in the blink of an eye he'd turned from her friend to her terrifying boss. “You're squabbling like kids! We don't talk about what happened on the Valiant – not ever. That's behind us, it's done with, and if Leah ever said that word I'd hunt down and shoot the person that said it. Is that clear?!”

Martha quickly calmed down, looking at the floor. “Yes. Sorry, Jack,” she added.

“It's okay.”

“Can I just ask one question?”

Jack sighed. “What?”

“What happened on the Valiant that he isn't telling me?” she asked seriously.

Jack didn't answer for a moment, but when he did he pulled a face. “That's... That's something I can't answer.”

“I need to know,” Martha urged.

Jack sighed, conceding. “The Master was very bored most of the time, so he filled it with us. The Doctor had to keep him occupied, as well as striking deals with him to stop him focusing his attention on your family.”

Martha stared at him, almost dreading to ask her next question. “What kind of deals?”

“I don't know everything,” Jack confessed. “But sometimes the deals would include me. I don't blame him for that, he tried to defend me but sometimes it was just something that had to happen. The Master was happy with what he could do with us and we were happy that it left your family alone. The Doctor's told me some of it, I think Rose knows the rest, and it's all _really_ bad. I guess the truth of what happened only the Doctor, Rose and the Master know. But if I were you, I wouldn't fight him about what happened with the Year That Never Was. Cos you'd be a sick person to.”

Martha swallowed, taking this in. “I... I never knew.”

Jack shrugged. “How could you? C'mon.” And with that, he turned and re-entered the infirmary.

Martha was left standing there for a moment, stunned in silence. It couldn't be true, surely? But then she remembered something she'd overheard her mum telling the psychiatrist, six months into therapy after they got back from the Valiant...

_“One time I was so angry at what I could see happening to him that I screamed at the Master, wanting to know why he was doing this, and the Master said... Well, he looked at me with this horrible smile and he said... that it was because of me. Then he walked away, laughing so hard...”_

Suddenly Martha felt very cold inside. Like realising that she'd lost a patient. That exact feeling. She had thought her mum had been talking about Jack, but perhaps she hadn't been. Perhaps it was the Doctor.

_“I'd take him food sometimes. The... The food was things like... dead birds and dead rats, but he was desperate for anything. I had to feed it to him because he was tied up. He couldn't ever... he couldn't ever find the energy to talk to me. The... The Master would just leave him there for weeks. He cried so much. I don't know if that was pain, or fear, or remorse. By the time the Master was finished with him he'd cried so much his blood looked like... Well, I just kept thinking it looked like really watered down strawberry cordial. Then a week later it all started over again. I hated the Master, then. I hated him so much. No one deserves that to happen to them. I didn't even see the bits in-between, but I could hear the screaming, and I'll never forget it. I... hope someone's looking after him, now. He'll need more therapy than I do.”_

Martha swallowed. It took her a few moments to gather her composure, before she finally stepped in the infirmary.

There was the Doctor, still on the bed. Jack was stood next to him.

The moment the Doctor saw her he offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry about earlier.”

Martha gazed at him for a moment, trying to see the phantom scars on his body from what he'd endured for her family. Then she burst into a smile, surprising both the Doctor and Jack. “Oh, don't apologise, you're fine. Doctors make the worst patients,” she joked, then moved forward with the needle and thread in hand. “I'll just get these stitches in you. And you'd better shut up and take it, mister.”

* * *

By the time the Doctor was cleaned and stitched up it was nearly 3:30pm. When they were done, he finally reached into his pocket and drew out the little Petri dish that had caused so much trouble, flipping over and between his fingers.

He suddenly looked up sharply at Martha. “You'd better leave, I'm going to get out a killer disease and I don't want you here in case you accidentally touch it.”

Martha simply obeyed with no question, leaving the infirmary to stand outside. Jack watched the Doctor, a little confused as the Time Lord drew out his sonic screwdriver and ran it around the rim of the Petri dish, before pulling off the lid.

“What is that?” Jack wondered.

“This is Yukkila.”

Jack blanched at the three syllable name. Yukkila was a word that struck fear into humanity's hearts. He'd learnt about it in history. It had been manufactured by some alien species a few solar systems away in the 49th century, but it had escaped in a pirate attack on a transport vessel through the Milky Way and the rest, as they say, was history. It had been the modern day equivalent of the Black Death, spreading right across the human space colonies and massacring all in its path. The population of humanity had gone from 30 billion to 14 billion in two weeks. Nothing had been able to stop it.

The Doctor caught his expression, and offered a reassuring smile. “Don't worry, you're immune and I’m not infectious.”

Jack didn't even answer that, his mouth spontaneously dry. “... Why do you have that?”

“My plan,” was all the Doctor replied, and then Jack watched in absolutely horror as the Doctor, quite casually, stuck his tongue inside the Petri dish, licking around. He then stuck his fingers in and wiped the tips of his fingers around his nose and mouth...

“What the hell are you doing?!” Jack shouted in alarm, diving forward to the Petri dish but the Doctor quickly held it away.

“Only way to see this thing is to be very ill, right?” he said, smearing some more on his face as though it was moisturiser. “So I'm making myself ill.”

“That's just a TV show!” Jack protested. “This is gonna kill you, Doc!”

“I'll be okay,” the Doctor assured him. “One of the few diseases that actually affects me. When it kicks in I'll be extremely ill, but my immune system will eventually overcome it. I had a bit of a mutated strain a few centuries ago and constantly hallucinated. I'm hoping this one will work in the same way.”

“This ain't clever,” Jack told him seriously, still very alarmed.

“If I can see it, maybe I can talk and reason with it,” the Doctor pointed out, and stopped what he was doing. “I... I don't know what else to do, Jack. I'm scared. If it got Leah... I don't know what I'd do.”

Jack still didn't agree with it, but had to resign to the matter as the deed was already done. He could already see the trademark white rashes appearing on the Doctor's skin. “Okay, okay, I'm with you. What do I need to do?”

“Just keep an eye on me, stay with me, if I say anything about the creature, listen to me. Make sure I keep in the children's ward.”

Jack nodded. “Got it.”

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Jack got up to open it, revealing Martha standing there looking a bit confused and holding out her phone.

“It's the hospital,” she said. “They want to talk to the Doctor.”

Jack moved forward to take the phone, before moving back to give it to the Doctor who was now standing up looking a bit pale.

“Hello?” he asked.

_“Good afternoon, Doctor, this is Pam from the Unit hospital. I am sorry to inform you, sir, but there's been... an incident.”_

“What? What incident?”

_“We have just found your wife unconscious in a corridor...”_

“What?!” he gasped, feeling Jack and Martha staring at him in alarm at his reaction. “She's okay? Where's Leah?”

_“Your wife is not yet awake, so we are not completely clear on...”_

“Get to the point!” the Doctor yelled, his eyes wide. “Where's Leah? Is she okay?!”

_“I am sorry, but she seems to have... disappeared. We have Unit guards searching the hospital and...”_

The woman's voice seemed to echo out and trail off into quiet murmurs. All of the breath in his lungs was instantaneously sucked out and the overwhelming urge to faint overcame him like an incoming tide.

He wasn't sure if he dropped the phone before or after he fell backwards onto the bed, gasping for air. It felt like he'd been hit in the face with a brick. Martha and Jack were of course spurred into action straight away but he couldn't hear anything, and their faces were distorted and out of time with reality. He didn't know whether to scream or cry, or maybe do both, or perhaps even nothing at all.

He did nothing in the end, except collapse to the floor, completely losing all feeling in his limbs. Then he stared unblinkingly through Jack's face as the ex-Time Agent tried desperately to bring him back to reality.

He opened his mouth, trying to form words. It took a few tries before he finally managed to get his voice box working. But it felt like someone else entirely was talking...

“It's Leah...” he heard himself croak. “She's been taken...”

 

 


	15. Follow the Bead Trail Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Jack try to find Leah, but UNIT have other ideas.

When they got back to the hospital, Martha went to organise the UNIT guards and the Doctor and Jack were taken straight to Rose.

She was still unconscious. The Doctor could feel his left arm and left side of his ribs tingling, as well as his head – the sure sign that she'd damaged them through the bond connection. The Doctor sat down on the bed, leaning forward to cup her cheek.

“Rose, Rose, wake up...”

She was unresponsive, so he reached up to her temple and closed his eyes, gently probing her mind. In a few seconds she opened her eyes, dazed.

“Doctor?” she croaked, then her eyes snapped to his pale, ill face with white rashes. “What's wrong with...” Then she saw his head full of stitches. “What the hell have you done to your...” Then she stopped again, her eyes shooting to the size of dinner plates. “Leah!”

“Tell me everything, where were you, how did it happen?” the Doctor asked anxiously, taking her hand.

Clutching onto his hand tightly, Rose proceeded to tell him everything. When she was finished he drew back to think for a moment, running his hands through his hair to propel his thoughts.

“Okay, it didn't kill her on the spot. If it wanted to kill her she'd be dead now. It took her for a reason...”

“To bait you?” Jack asked quickly.

“Maybe, or just her in herself... She's got regenerative energy, like me, like a constant snack... All that matters is that she isn't dead. If they intended to kill her she'd be dead already...”

“Let's go get her, then.”

The Doctor nodded, looking back at Rose. “I'll be back with her in twenty minutes, not a minute longer.”

“What? No, I'm comin',” Rose said, pulling back the sheets and making to get up before the Doctor quickly grabbed her in mid-movement.

“Stay here,” he told her, gazing deeply into her eyes. “You're hurt. I'll find her, okay? I promise. I'll find her, and she'll be fine. I don't want you in danger too.”

The Doctor was unconsciously anticipating a three minute fight on the subject, but to his complete surprise she simply nodded, leaned forward and kissed him. “Okay. See ya in a bit.”

He kissed her again. “See ya,” he echoed, then straightened, beckoned Jack, and left out the door to the scene of the crime without a word.

* * *

The place was completely deserted, which was surprising.

The Doctor and Jack had been expecting to find UNIT personnel combing over the scene and guards covering the perimeter, but they weren't. It was absolutely deserted. They could even see the small patch of Rose's blood on the wall where her head had connected with it. Not even cleaned up.

Jack looked at the Doctor, staring at the blood. He was bristling slightly.

“Doctor,” Jack prompted before the Time Lord looked at it for too long. The Time Lord in question quickly tore his gaze away, glanced at Jack, and then moved on.

There were signs of a struggle down the corridor; a frame of a window with eight dents in a line – Leah clinging onto the edge trying desperately to escape the creature's grip. A little further down was one tiny toddler slipper, lost in the struggle. The Doctor stooped down to pick it up, absolutely tiny in his massive adult hand.

The paternal bond flared in him for a moment, filling him with a sense of anger and despair.

Jack rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder. No words were exchanged as the Doctor nodded and put the tiny slipper into his inside jacket pocket, and moved on.

They followed the trail to the end door. It was unhinged. They passed through, and the corridor split into three.

“Where next?” the Doctor spoke aloud, taking a step forward and almost tripping over something on the floor. He looked down, and found a single tiny round bead. He recognised it instantly, sharply looking up, hoping and _praying_ this meant what he thought it did...

Yes! He ran forward down the left corridor, crouching to pick up another bead.

“Are those...?” Jack ventured, but the Doctor was already off down the corridor to locate the next one, suddenly grinning from ear to ear.

“Oh, you clever little girl,” the Doctor breathed, looking at the trail of beads on the floor leading through the next door. “She's laid a path with her necklace!”

At that point he would've followed the trail without hesitation, but it was at that exact moment his body decided to remind him he was incredibly ill and his legs abruptly and quite unexpectedly buckled from beneath him. Thankfully Jack had seen it coming and dived forward to catch him before he hit the floor.

“Okay?” Jack asked, brushing back the Doctor's hair. It was then he realised how hot the Doctor was. Rapid onset fever and muscle spasms - stage two of Yukkila. The fourth stage was death.

“Just hot, I’ll be fine,” the Doctor murmured.

“Bet this Yukkila thing seems like a dumb idea now,” Jack joked. “Just take a minute.”

The Doctor did so, closing his eyes to draw in a deep, measured breath. “Jack,” he croaked, blinking his eyes open. “Promise me something?”

“Yeah?”

“If I collapse, or if it gets me... If anything happens to me and Leah's still there... It's a choice between saving me and saving her, you'll save her, won't you?”

Jack took a breath, closing his eyes and bracing himself for that scenario for a moment before replying. “I'd take you both.”

“If you couldn't,” the Doctor breathed, persisting. “You'd take Leah, right? Promise me.”

Jack nodded. “I promise. But I'd come back for you.”

“Thank you,” was all the Doctor said, offering a small smile.

Jack nodded again, and they both fell silent. And then Jack spoke, his usually big, commanding, deep voice suddenly tiny and utterly resigned. “These creatures... They killed Ella, didn't they?”

“I think so,” the Doctor said quietly, looking up at him. “I'm sorry.”

Jack swallowed, and then his jaw was set. “Well they're not having Leah too. I'm not gonna let 'em. She's ours.” He looked down at the Doctor again, suddenly renewed. “Ready to go get her?”

The Doctor smiled, making to get up. Jack helped him until he was standing upright, wavering slightly for a moment until he found his centre of balance.

“Allons-y,” he supposed, before turning to follow the bead trail.

Then completely without warning the entire corridor was engulfed in UNIT guards, yelling and screaming orders with their guns raised. The two immediately found themselves in a tide of soldiers grabbing their arms in restraint and pointing guns in their faces.

“Get off!” Jack shouted in surprise, struggling.

“What are you doing?!” the Doctor yelped, but Jack couldn't even see him now. He fought and fought until he broke free, driving through the crowd to get to the Doctor, and to his complete alarm he found the Time Lord pinned down to the ground by five UNIT guards.

Jack was quickly grabbed again, and this time his struggles did nothing.

“What's happening?!” he yelled, but of course no one answered. He found himself only able to watch in complete confusion as Doctor Johnston suddenly appeared with a needle fill of suspicious liquid in his hand. Quickly he realised where it was going as Johnston approached the Time Lord...

“Let him go!” Jack roared with full voice-box potential, giving one last desperate burst of struggle, but he wasn't going anywhere.

Johnston knelt down next to the struggling Doctor, grabbing his head and exposing his neck. Then he simply stabbed the needle into the Doctor's neck, and pressed down.

The liquid filtered in, and worked extremely well. Within ten seconds the Doctor's struggles had died and he fell completely limp.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Jack yelled again as they picked up the Doctor's body and carried him back the way they'd come. “ _Answer_ me!!!”

“Let him go, he's not one of 'em,” one of the UNIT guards gruffed, and suddenly they let go of Jack. He was about to make after them to find out what the hell was going on when something suddenly stopped him dead in his tracks.

He'd made a promise to a friend.

He stared after the disappearing crowd of UNIT for a moment, before drawing out his gun and turning swiftly on his heel to follow the bead trail to find Leah.

* * *

The Doctor woke up in a haze to the feeling lying face-down on a cold, hard floor, his hands seemingly stuck behind him. He groaned slightly, raising his head and meeting the sight of Martha sitting cross-legged next to him.

“Martha?” he croaked, trying to move his hands, before he finally realised they were cuffed. “Woz goin' on?” he slurred.

“I don't know, but it doesn't seem good,” Martha muttered, resting a hand on his forehead. “Is this the Yukkila? How are you feeling?”

“Not goo',” the Doctor confessed, closing his eyes against the harsh light. “Where're we?”

“Still in the hospital, in a conference room. UNIT just threw me in here, you were unconscious for ten minutes.”

“S'abbed me wivva needle,” the Doctor told her. It felt like he was drunk. And not a good, tipsy kind of drunk – the kind where he felt like he was going to throw up at any minute. “Where s'Leah?”

“I don't know, but Jack's gone,” she told him gently. “I think he went to find her.”

The Doctor allowed himself a half-smile. “Goo',” he muttered, before suddenly the door burst open and the next thing he knew he was grabbed under the armpits and lifted off of the ground. He groaned a very strangled groan as he was dragged over to a chair and sat in it, barely conscious to feel the binding of ropes around to secure him in place.

There was then the clunk of important-sounding footsteps and the Doctor heard Martha gasp. He forced up his head, looking with blurry eyes to the doorway, and to his complete surprise... There was the blurry but very unmistakable shape of Colonel Mace.

“Sir?” Martha asked, utterly stunned. “What's going on?”

“You are both under arrest for trespassing on a military base and the theft of highly dangerous substances.”

“What?” Martha gasped, wide-eyed in complete shock, glancing at the tied-up Doctor next to her struggling to stay conscious. “Colonel, not now! His daughter's just gone missing, we'll deal with all this later!”

“I don't care if the Queen's gone missing, this alien is being arrested and taken to confinement. And if Head Office had their way he'd have it a lot worse.”

“But you _can't...”_

“Miss Jones, may I remind you, you are also under arrest. I've managed to obtain a pardon for you for now since you were under the influence of the Doctor, but...”

“No!” Martha suddenly screamed, getting to her feet with a dangerous look in her eyes. “I don't give a _damn_ about Unit! I care about my friend, I care about my niece! A niece who right now could be being _murdered_ , and the fact she's not human doesn't give you the right to abandon her like your so-called _incompetent_ head doctor abandoned those other alien children to die! Get your priorities straight! A two-year-old child is in danger and we need to focus on that!”

Mace was angry, his eyebrows lowered. “Stand down, Miss Jones.”

“No!” she yelled.

He took a breath, like what he was about to say took a lot of courage... “Miss Jones... I have no choice but to fire you.”

“Too late!” Martha snapped, pulling off her name-badge and stamping it into the floor. “I resign!”

“Restrain her,” Mace ordered, and instantly the UNIT guards were moving towards her. She backed away in apprehension, but any further altercation between them was quickly stopped by the Doctor suddenly jolting in his chair, throwing his head over the side and throwing up onto the floor. Alarmed, Martha went to him straight away, checking his forehead. He was boiling hot. It was then she noticed the redness of his neck, and she realised. This wasn't the Yukkila.

“He's reacting badly to the sedative,” Martha said quickly. A UNIT guard tried to take her arm but she yanked it away, glaring at the man, who immediately backed off. She turned her attentions back to the Doctor. “Doctor. Doctor, talk to me.”

He was in stupor. Martha tried desperately to undo the ropes but they were holding firm. “Someone get these off of him, he needs to breathe...”

The Doctor threw up again, but none of UNIT moved.

“We need to help him!” Martha snapped, her narrowed eyes fixing on Colonel Mace. “You're neglecting the Doctor, do you _really_ want his death on your record?”

For a moment Mace didn't move, utterly paralysed by indecision, before finally looking sharply up at the guards. “Untie him.”

“Yessir,” one confirmed, moving forward to get off the ropes.

“Doctor, talk to me,” Martha urged,

“Help me,” he suddenly whined, his head rolling back.

Martha quickly caught it. “I am, just don't pass out on me, okay?”

He blinked open unfocused eyes, looking sightlessly around the room. “Where'm I?” He slurred, completely dazed.

“The Unit hospital,” Martha told him gently, then looked up at the guards again. “We've got to get him to a bed and start treatment.”

Again, no one moved.

“NOW!” Martha roared, her eyes on fire. They burst into action then.

* * *

Jack had followed the bead trail down into the deepest, darkest depths of the hospital – quite literally. It seemed very neglected, dirt and dust and spiders to boot. There was no light and the light switches weren't even working, so he'd had to get out his torch and light his way with the single beam.

There was something in the air he didn't like. Something cold, unwelcoming. It smelt strange too; a kind of smell he couldn't place, but somehow seemed so familiar...

The bead trail had since stopped – she had run out of beads. But he found another slipper halfway down the corridor, and ten metres down from that was Bundy the teddy bear, lying on the floor outside a white door. He picked up the bear, put it in his pocket, and kicked open the door with a raised gun.

His eyes were instantly assaulted by the sudden burst of bright blue light. When he'd managed to blink his way to some sort of focus he realised what the smell had been – the metallic odour of a cheap teleport. There was nothing else in the room.

He slid his torch back into his pocket, gazing at the sight for a moment as he braced himself for what was about to come. He had no idea what he'd find on the other side of that teleport; where it was, how many of  the creatures there were, whether Leah was even still alive.

He took a deep, affirming breath, lifted his gun in both hands again and moved forward straight into the blue light.

Three seconds later, he vanished.

 

 


	16. Double Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor is confronted by one of the creatures as he breaks out of his confinement.

When the Doctor woke up next, he felt extremely hot but considerably less drunk. Which was nice.

He was in a dark, private hospital room, wired up to a million machines and intravenous solutions. When he tried to move he quickly realised both of his hands were handcuffed to the side-rails, and through the door he could see the dark silhouette of a UNIT guard holding a gun. Obviously they didn't want him going anywhere. Well, tough luck for them, because he needed to find Leah.

According to his time sense it was 5 o'clock. If Jack had gone to find her, maybe he was already back? Only one way to find out...

“Oi!” he yelled to the guard outside, rattling the cuffs with his hands. “You! 'Scuse me!”

The UNIT guard turned, frowning. He pushed open the door, peeking inside to see the Doctor staring at him. “What is it, mate?” he asked, concerned.

The Doctor was slightly stunned by his friendly demeanour, and decided he'd try to be nice instead of getting angry. “What's your name?” he asked, pulling a smile he didn't really feel like giving.

“Mike, mate. That all you wanted to know?”

“No,” the Doctor said quickly before the man could turn to leave. “Look, Mike, I'm going to be straight with you. This is all an _incredible_ misunderstanding and I really, _really_ need to go, _right_ now.”

“No can do, mate,” Mike replied, incredibly apologetic. “Orders from above, yeah?”

“You don't understand,” the Doctor persisted. “Please, it's my daughter, she's called Leah. She's been taken by a monster. I need to find her right now and I can't do that lying here. I'm no threat, honestly. You can let me go, I won't say it was you.”

“I know all about your daughter, mate, and I'm really sorry to hear it, but I can't let you go.”

“Please...” He was begging, now. He even wondered briefly if crying would do the trick. Probably not. “You have to help me, she's only two... and it's my fault, I let her stay here. I should've taken her away and hidden her, protected her better... But now she's about to be killed... I need to find her. Please.”

Mike the UNIT guard seemed quite sad at the Doctor's situation. “I'm sorry,” was all he said before he closed the door, and turned away.

The Doctor didn't normally expel sudden bouts of complete rage at random, but today hadn't exactly been a normal day. So he yelled in frustration, pulling with all his might against the handcuffs, but they held firm. Quite irritated now, he tried the old Houdini trick with the handcuffs, but after ten minutes and an aching wrist he quickly realised he wasn't going anywhere. He was just considering doing the old sick prisoner routine when he suddenly noticed a strange blurriness in the corner of the room.

He frowned, focusing his eyes on the seemingly blurry area. It was about three seconds until he realised it was moving, and another three until he realised it was coming towards him... Then he knew.

“You're there, aren't you?” the Doctor asked quietly, all anger suddenly dissipating instantaneously and quickly replaced with a kind of terror he hadn't felt for a _very_ long time.

There was a slight pause, as the blurriness stopped, before there was a sudden sharp intake of air from somewhere and a grating, whispering, _horrible_ voice came back:

_“You're there, aren't you?”_

“Where's Leah?”

_“Where's Leah?”_

“Please don't do that.”

_“Please don't do that.”_

“Stop that!”

_“Stop that!”_

This was the Midnight creature all over again, and he was terrified. He was suddenly completely and utterly convinced he could feel that paralysis slowly creeping over him...

“No!” he yelled abruptly, forcing himself to cling onto what remnants of comprehension he had. “You're not real!”

_“No! You're not real!”_

“You're playing on my mind...”

_“You're playing on my mind...”_

“Get out of my head!”

_“Get out of my head!”_

The shimmer started moving towards him. He panicked, trying to escape but the handcuffs stopped him.

“Stop this!” he yelled, still fighting his binds though he knew it was pointless.

_“Stop this!”_

“What's going on, mate?” a voice suddenly came from the doorway – the UNIT guard.

The Doctor's eyes snapped to him, alert. “The creature's in here, you've got to let me go!”

 _“The creature's in here, you've got to let me go!”_ the voice repeated...

The UNIT guard looked around the room, obviously saw absolutely nothing, and laughed. “Sorry, mate, that only works in the films.”

“Please, it's invisible to you, let me out of these!”

_“Please, it's invisible to you, let me out of these!”_

“Wow, you're mental,” the UNIT guard said, laughing some more.

The Doctor watched in horror as the blur suddenly stopped coming towards him, and instead turned to the guard. His eyes widened. “You've got to listen to me, it's going to kill you!”

_“You've got to listen to me, it's going to kill you!”_

Th guard was still laughing... Until suddenly he wasn't laughing. His eyes widened as he began to choke; invisible hands clamped around his throat. He forced out a yell and tried to get a good grip on his gun but as his energy began to deplete the gun dropped to the floor with a clatter, completely useless.

And then his entire face began to pale, and the light of life in his eyes was very quickly dying. He almost seemed to shrink, his body rapidly losing strength before he finally collapsed to the floor, dead.

Then there was only silence.

“You didn't need to do that,” the Doctor croaked, staring at the dead body of the former UNIT guard. “He was no threat to you.”

“You didn't need to do that. He was no threat to you,” was all the raspy voice had to say.

Then Rose appeared in the doorway, sonic screwdriver aloft, her eyes wide and searching. She saw the dead guard on the floor, double-taked, and then looked up to the Doctor in the bed.

“At the end of the bed!” he said quickly, inclining his head.

“At the end of the...”

The sonic screwdriver burst into life, and the creature didn't even get to finish its sentence. It made a shrieking, screaming, grating and wholly unearthly scream before there was the sound of the collapsing body. Then there was silence.

“Was that it?” Rose asked anxiously, already moving towards him. “Was that the creature?”

The Doctor nodded, rubbing his right wrist as she freed it. “Can you see it?”

Rose looked again. “No,” she replied, freeing the other wrist. “Can you?”

He nodded, pulling back the cover and accepting her help up, swaying slightly. “Infected myself. Hallucinating.”

Rose just sighed at that, pulling him towards the door by the hand. She checked left and right for guards before darting out, still pulling him along. “So fill me in.”

“Went to Unit to get a disease, got shot in the escape, infected myself with a deadly disease then got arrested. Jack's gone after Leah. And you're out of bed,” he added, not looking happy.

Rose simply rolled her eyes. “Well I wasn't hangin' around waitin’ was I?” she said, peeking through the next door to see a guard patrolling, coming towards them. She quickly shrank back, slamming the Doctor against the wall, pulling off of her fluffy pink dressing gown and throwing it over his head. Then she began to snog him relentlessly.

Seconds later, the door opened and the UNIT guard emerged, stopping dead at the sight of the two lovers in the middle of the corridor, hands everywhere. He coughed as as way of announcing his presence.

Rose turned, her eye make-up smudged and hair everywhere. “Yeah?” she asked.

“This area is off limits...” he said, staring with slight bemusement at the Doctor, who could just about make the UNIT guard out through the material of the dressing gown.

“It is?” Rose looked aghast. “Oh, sorry, we'll get out.” She turned to the Doctor. “Come on... Umm... Roy, let's go to the toilets, yeah?”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the doors without a look back. After a few steps the Doctor stopped, flung off the dressing gown on his head and stared at her.

“Roy?” he repeated.

“Best I could think of,” Rose told him, and pulled the gown over his head again. “Now shut up and be inconspicuous.”

“I have a pink dressing gown on my head,“ he pointed out in a mumble beneath the fleece. She ignored him, taking his hand once more to lead him.

But even as they moved off there came a loud yell from behind them, and the Doctor found his hand being yanked as they began to run full pelt down the corridor.

Then came the sound of footsteps running after them. The Doctor had to reach up to push the dressing gown away from his eyes – narrowly missing a wall.

“Faster!” Rose urged him but the Doctor couldn't keep up. The Yukkila was sapping his energy, and pretty soon his legs were nearly dead. He gasped a plea for Rose to stop but she continued to drag him, stumbling until they finally reached the corridor where the original attack had taken place.

And then the door behind them burst open, and they both whirled around to find Rose standing there.

“Doctor!” she yelped, gasping for breath. “I told you to slow down! I lost the guards, told them to... Are you okay?”

The Doctor was absolutely astonished as suddenly there were two Roses in the corridor. He backed against the wall, eyes wide and looking frantically between them.

“Doctor?” both Roses asked in sync, simultaneously moving towards him.

“No, stay away!” he said quickly, feeling as though he was about to collapse.

“What's wrong?” new Rose asked anxiously.

“Are you okay?” the original Rose asked anxiously.

“There's two of you,” he told them both, still looking between them.

“What?” new Rose asked, frowning as she looked around. “Where?”

“But I'm the only one here,” old Rose insisted, looking around the corridor in confusion.

“I'm hallucinating one of you, one of you is the creature, one of you is lying!” the Doctor yelled, his head absolutely killing with the Yukkila migraine.

“I'm real, Doctor,” the old Rose assured him gently. “Calm down.”

“I'm the real one, okay, Doctor?” the new Rose told him softly. “It's okay, just breathe.”

“Stop it!” the Doctor yelped, hands clutching his head, just trying to get control of his faculties. He couldn't even sense the real Rose through the bond. After a pause he finally looked up at them both standing there, utterly concerned for him. “Okay, okay. Rose One,” he pointed to the original Rose. “First word I ever said to you?”

“Run,” she told him, still looking around the corridor blindly for the second Rose.

“Okay, yes,” he said, and then turned to new Rose. “Rose Two. Where did we get married?”

“We aren't,” she told him, also looking around for her double.

“Yep... Rose One, name of Leah's bear we got her for Christmas?”

“Bundy.”

“Right, okay, Rose Two, Leah's first word?”

“Dadda.”

He groaned, lightly hitting his head against the wall before suddenly snapping to full alert, looking at Rose One. “Got it! When was the first time we kissed, Rose One?”

“Satellite Five,” she told him instantly.

He beamed brightly. “Wrong!” he chimed. “The real Rose wouldn't remember that!”

“The real Rose wouldn't remember what time we kissed?” Rose Two asked, staring at him.

“Oh, umm... I'll explain later,” he assured her, kissing her to be sure it was the real Rose. It was. He could taste the bond.

“We have your daughter and your immortal friend,” fake Rose suddenly spat as she backed away, grinning the most evil grin he'd ever seen in his life. “You'd better come and save them...”

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. “If you've hurt either of them I'm not going to play nice,” he grated.

“We're counting on it,” was all fake Rose had to say as she laughed cynically and disappeared out the far door.

Rose looked at him, anxious. “What did it say?”

“They've got Leah and now they've got Jack,” he grated, finally throwing the pink dressing gown from his head and taking her hand. “They _want_ me to go to them. We're going to walk into an ambush.”

Rose squeezed his hand in return as reassurance. “Don't care. Let's go.”

 

 


	17. Epic Chapter Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack finds Leah and the Doctor and Rose follow, but the escape is foiled.

Jack wasn't having a very good day.

After stepping through the teleport he'd emerged onto a spaceship, and instantly been ambushed by several invisible creatures. He'd fought for a little while, taking a few pot-shots and had maybe managed to kill one or two, but eventually he'd been overpowered and choked to death.

He'd revived a few minutes later as he was being dragged towards a waste disposal unit, but hadn't had the energy to overpower them. So instead he'd been taken down into the very depths of the spaceship and thrown into a small brightly-lit room where, to his great relief, he found a tiny and terrified yet unmistakable toddler curled up in the corner in the foetal position.

“Leah,” he said quickly, jogging to the girl.

She looked up, and instantly her face lit up with joy. “Unka Jack!” she exclaimed as he hugged her tightly.

“Have they hurt you?” he asked quickly, checking her over for even the slightest scuff.

She shook her head. “We leaving now?” she asked anxiously.

Jack offered a supportive smile. “Not yet. My plan was to come in here, sneak past the creatures, find you and whisk you out with no problem. But that's sort of failed, so now we've gotta wait for mummy and daddy.”

“They comin'?” she asked.

“Of course they are, in fact, I bet they're standing outside that door right now,” Jack replied, pointing at the door.

Leah instantly began to stare at the door with such concentration, as though she was mentally willing it to open and her mum and dad be there. For a while they both stared at it. Nothing happened.

After a minute she broke her gaze away, looking up at Jack. “I'm scared.”

“Hey, don't be,” he told her. “Cos your uncle Jack would never let anything happen to you, all right? A little because your daddy would kill me, but mostly cos I love you. Got that?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Love you too, Unka Jack.”

“Good,” he said, smiling. Then they both fell silent, staring at the door again.

Jack sighed, thinking for a moment before he got to his feet. “You know what? I can't be bothered to wait. I wasn't gonna do this until you were older, but it's time for Uncle Jack's life skills lesson one – how to open a locked door.”

* * *

The Doctor and Rose had found the underground room, the teleport still there buzzing away with bright blue energy,

The Doctor was sniffing, frowning. “Oh, that's not a good smell.”

Rose sniffed with him. “It's like... d'you remember the Olympics? It's that metal kinda tang.”

“Yes!” the Doctor suddenly burst out excitedly. “That's _exactly_ what it is. Residual energy from a...” His eyes snapped to the teleport. “From a teleport. Oh, that's not good.”

Rose looked at the teleport with him, and then back at his face. “Is it broken?”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, it's just very, very cheap. You get these kinds of teleports on the black market; back alley kind of stuff. They're illegal for being so unsafe, but as cheap as anything.”

“And that's bad, yeah?” Rose wondered. “Is it safe to go in?”

He sniffed again. “I think so. Just don't leave an arm hanging out, it'll cut it off and teleport it away before you can say, 'ow, my arm'.”

Rose grimaced. “You're not exactly fillin' me with confidence, here.”

“We're about to walk into an ambush, I can't really give you any words of confidence,” he pointed out,

Rose rolled her eyes. She took his hand as she leaned forward to dab a kiss to his lips. She then drew back, pushing his hair away from his sticky, sweaty forehead.

“Love you,” she said, smiling.

“Back at you,” he replied, kissing her in return. “Ready?”

She nodded, squeezed his hand, and they both stepped into the teleport. Rose clung onto the Doctor tightly, desperately checking all her limbs and appendages were inside before a sudden, low-pitched buzzing filled her head, and the world in front of her vanished in a blip.

Seconds later, it came back together in a kaleidoscope of colour, as though she were looking inside a washing machine. Eventually the cycle finished and the atoms rearranged back to their proper order with a jolt. The shock of the jolt made her stumble forward slightly but the Doctor kept hold of her, pulling her out of the blue light and into a giant open expanse of dull-grey metal room... a spaceship?

She couldn't see anyone, though. However, the instant they moved forward the Doctor stepped in front of her, protecting her.

“I'm here,” he said simply.

She didn't hear a reply, but the Doctor obviously had.

“Oh, I don't think so,” he said through grated teeth. “Give me back my daughter and my friend or you're not going to have a very good day.” Pause, before the Doctor spoke again. “I _swear_ if you've hurt her...” Pause. “Do whatever you want with me, just let them go! … No! No!”

Rose suddenly felt herself being grabbed and yanked to the side, away from the Doctor who'd had the exact same treatment. She tried to fight, but she found fighting something invisible wasn't going to get her anywhere so she ended up letting herself be dragged through the door after the Doctor, who was seemingly resigned to the situation too. Maybe they'd take them to Leah?

It was just as they reached the lower depths of the ship that the familiar figures of Jack and Leah appeared at the end of the corridor. The Doctor's eyes widened as the creatures suddenly stopped dragging him, turning their attentions to Jack and Leah...

Jack quickly gestured for Leah to get behind the corner as he drew out his gun, and raised it to level, and then simply strode straight towards the creatures despite not being able to see them. The creatures panicked and there was a thudding sound of the stolen sonic screwdriver hitting the floor. The Doctor eyed it, then looked up at Jack again. Jack met his gaze, and the Doctor inclined his head.

Jack nodded, and took a shot. Suddenly the entire corridor filled with dense, white smoke.

The Doctor struggled again, managing to get away in the surprise and blindly lunge both for the sonic screwdriver and Rose's hand, leading her straight out of her captors' grip. They both ran with hearts hammering in their chests to Jack, Rose snatching up Leah despite her arm and ribs as the Doctor grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him towards the door.

“I can kill 'em!” Jack protested, stumbling behind the Doctor.

“No, you can't!” the Doctor yelled back as they crossed the threshold of the door. The Doctor turned and slammed his palm on the door lock. The creatures panicked, quickening their pace, but they couldn't get to the door in time before it closed with a mechanical click.

The Doctor instantly jumped to the keypad, sonic in hand, jabbing the numbers and running the familiar blue light up and down the contraption – but the creatures were already trying to override it; the door slowly creeping back...

“Get out the way!” Jack yelled, pushing the Doctor back who fell backwards onto the floor in surprise as Jack raised his gun and shot the keypad. The door abruptly slid closed in a fountain of bright sparks, and consequently double-deadlocked. Then the alarms went crazy, flooding the entire corridor in flashing red.

“I just needed two more seconds!” the Doctor protested, still on the floor.

“We didn't have two seconds!” Jack shouted in return over the alarms, grabbing both of the Time Lord's hands and pulling him to his feet.

“Well if you'd let me try we wouldn't have _this_ problem would we?!” the Doctor accused, gesturing around at the deafening sirens and flashing red lights.

“Run already!” Leah suddenly yelped. Once again the Doctor and Rose found themselves taking orders from their two-year-old and began to run down the corridor, around a turn only to meet yet more of the creatures, striding in a row of three directly towards them. Almost immediately the creatures morphed, changing form straight into the Doctor, Rose and Jack’s own mirrored reflections.

On impulse, Jack jumped forward and broke the door lock. The door slammed shut with a resounding thud, leaving them all trapped inside a sealed corridor.

“What did you do that for?” the Doctor cried over the persistent alarms.

“Uh, you’re welcome!” Jack shouted insincerely.

“We’re trapped!” Rose said, looking around desperately for a way out. The Doctor was already scanning the walls with his sonic, his brow furrowed.

“Oh, please,” Jack said, pushing the Doctor away, raising his gun and shooting at the wall five times. Then, without hesitation, he ran forward and plunged straight through the weakened structure, shoulder first. It burst apart on impact as Jack fell through, ending up on the floor in a mess of metal.

The Doctor stepped through, offering a hand up to Jack who took it, wincing slightly.

“Are you all right?” Rose asked Jack seriously, stepping through the mess.

“Just one broken bone,” Jack assured her. “Let’s go!”

“Back to the teleport!” the Doctor ordered, but they hadn't even needed telling as they were already halfway up the stairs.

They reached the teleport room in forty seconds flat, all tumbling inside the door in a heap before they looked up to regard the last stretch of their escape route. None of them had expected an easy escape of course and they weren't disappointed. In-between them and the teleport stood one giant, horrific-looking creature beyond any comprehension – a mess of blackness and bulging red veins, one giant eye and many tendrils waving around seemingly at random. Half of it was made up with metal plate of robotics. It absolutely _stank_ , and even more than that it was making what they assumed to be a breathing noise, which sound uncannily like a the flush of a toilet.

“I can see that...” Rose croaked.

“Can you smell it too?” the Doctor asked somewhat sarcastically, wrinkling up his nose before he put Leah down, and stepped forward to the creature. “Talk to me,” he began boldly, subtly moving to the left and disguising a gesture behind his back for the other three to follow his direction. “What's your name? Your species?”

It was a moment before it answered. The Doctor was about to ask again when it finally answered as a thunderous robotic rumble inside their heads...

 _“Names are of no consequence,”_ it replied.

“But I like names,” the Doctor protested, still moving a step left every now and then to slowly move to the teleport, the others following. “Names give identity, and meaning. Though sometimes it doesn't have a great meaning. I knew a guy named Onesimos once, his name translates to meaning 'possessing qualities of a donkey' but he doesn't let that get him down.” He looked at the creature again, and shrugged. “Ouch, tough audience. But really, I'm guessing you're the big... umm, stinky cheese around here, yes?”

_“Position is of no consequence.”_

“I knew you were going to say that,” the Doctor replied, sighing. “But really, I _love_ names, let's talk about names again. I'm the Doctor, and that means... well, Doctor, really. Jack here, his name means God is Gracious. Leah's might derive from a Chaldean name meaning "mistress" or "ruler" in Akkadian, and Rose is a flower. So come on, this is always a party icebreaker, what's your name? I can tell you the meaning of it!”

 _“Enough,”_ the creature rumbled, the tentacles dangerously wavering, its entire blobby form rising up and sinking down again in a massive intake of breath. The Doctor resisted the compulsion to retch as a fresh wave of smell hit him in the face like a rancid brick.

“Okay, then. Won't tell me your name? You're obviously made rather than born, that robot stuff is a dead give away, you know. So you're created for something... What's your objective?”

The creature took a breath in again. The Doctor _had_ to retch this time.

_“I have only one objective...”_

“And what's that?”

_“... To capture the Doctor.”_

And with that, it threw out a tentacle and grabbed the Doctor around the chest. Rose shrieked, Leah wailed, and Jack was already moving forward with his gun in hand, struggling to reload.

The Doctor tried to talk, but the creature had begun to squeeze his chest and he couldn't get out anything but a struggled, whining gasp of air that _barely_ went in…

* * *

“Let go of him!” Jack yelled, having successfully reloaded his gun and was already shooting into the big fat blobby skin of the creature.

It didn't seem to have much effect, but nevertheless it seemed to irritate the creature. It went for Jack with a few of its spare tentacles but he dodged and rolled and jumped all over the place, infuriating the creature to no end. It squeezed the Doctor harder and they heard the Doctor manage to get out a shriek of pain. A horribly familiar tingling sensation came into Rose's arm.

The shriek spurred Jack on, but also spurred Leah into action. Suddenly she'd let go of her mother and was running towards the creature, trying to reach up to her dad, but perhaps even accidentally a tentacle of the agitated creature flew around and caught her, sending her flying.

“Leah!” Rose yelled, running straight to her little girl lying unmoving on the floor.

Suddenly the creature was completely focused on Jack. It threw the Doctor across the room like it was tossing a ping-pong ball, the Time Lord flying through the air and smacking into the wall behind the teleport; knocked out on impact.

That was all Jack got to see as every single tentacle focused on him. He knew he wasn't going to last long, but he had to get Rose and Leah to the teleport...

Then Jack heard a sudden, strange, high-pitched whining. He turned his head in its direction, and instantly went cold inside.

The Doctor's right arm was in the teleport. The rest of his body was not.

Jack's eyes snapped to Rose. “Get him out of the teleport! It's gonna take off his arm!”

Rose instantly got up from next to Leah to run without so much as a beat. But without warning she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, as though she had run into something – and instantly Jack knew it was one of the invisible creatures. They'd finally made it to the room. She was grabbed, and instantly she started screaming.

Suddenly Jack didn't know where to look or what to prioritise. The Doctor's arm was about to get severed, Rose was about to get the life sucked out of her and Leah was lying utterly helpless and vulnerable on the floor...

Then his feet were moving without him really telling them to. He was going towards Leah, still dodging a million tentacles desperately trying to kill him. He reached her and scooped her up under one arm, skipping over a few more tentacles and still shooting at the creature at every opportune moment.

Somehow, _somehow_ he reached the teleport, grabbing one of the unconscious Doctor's feet and pulling him out of the teleport – but it had already done some damage. Blood coated his entire arm and the floor beneath, and even though the Time Lord was wearing a t-shirt Jack didn't know whether the Doctor's arm was even still attached to his body. But he had to focus on Rose, now.

In a single motion he turned, drew out his gun and shot at where he thought the creature might be.

Rose shrieked and for a moment Jack thought he'd hit her... but he hadn't. He hadn't got the creature either. It was drawing the life out of Rose like it had so many innocent children, the woman seemingly shrinking, her legs losing all their energy...

He took another shot, and Rose abruptly dropped to the ground, eyes closed, her face pale. He ran forward as fast as he could, but he was beginning to tire. He was still carrying Leah, still dodging tentacles and _still_ shooting the fat creature in the centre of the room. He picked up Rose under the other arm and turned to run back with every ounce of strength he could muster to the teleport.

A tentacle caught him in the leg. He was sent flying to the floor, and was met with the sight of the sonic screwdriver lying just in front of him, dropped by the one that had attacked Rose. He grabbed it, and with the desire to save the two girls he sought the energy to bounce up again instantly, grab them, and complete the run to the teleport.

He got the two knocked out girls in, and seconds later they vanished. He turned to get the Doctor when a feeling of coldness swept over him, and he knew another invisible creature was just inches away from him.

He couldn't let it find Rose and Leah again, so he pulled the Doctor's sonic from his pocket, aimed it at the teleport and broke it, cutting off the connection.

Then something finally grabbed him. He tried to fight it, but his gun was out of bullets. Slowly mist was beginning to cloud his mind, his thoughts becoming less clear, his entire body weakening...

This had been how Ella had died.

He squeaked a final pathetic squeak before the world began to fade away from in front of his eyes. Then he died.

 

 


	18. Epic Chapter Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack remembers his promise to the Doctor to look after Leah and Rose if he died. Rose and Jack discover the Doctor has been badly injured and sold to the Sycorax.

_There’s a light rapping on my office door, and I look up to see the Doctor peek his head around the frame to look at me. He looks a bit hot today, I note._

_He offers a little smile. “Jack, can I have a word?” he asks._

_I nod, and gesture for him to take a seat. “How's Leah doing?”_

_“She pooed in the potty yesterday and was so proud of it she ran to get me and Rose to show us,” he says without a pause._

_I can't help but laugh at that, the event and his deadpan expression. “Growing up,” I note. “So what's up?”_

_“I need to ask you a favour.”_

_“Anything.”_

_“It's...” His eyes disconnect, suddenly awkward. “It's about Leah and Rose.”_

_“Not been thinking too much, have you?” I wonder, kind of anticipating what's next._

_He suddenly stops, considering what I'd said for a moment. Then he glances at the door, before he suddenly gets up._

_Whoops, shouldn't have said that._

_“Sorry, I'll just go,” he murmurs._

_“No,” I say quickly, hands up. “Sorry. Whatever you say doesn't leave this room, promise.”_

_He sighs, and after a few moments finally drops back into his seat, running a hand through his hair. He's feeling awkward, I know. I've since learnt to tread carefully around a Doctor baring his soul, he's only really started doing it since he and Rose finally got in the sack and I quite like it, to be honest. He was increasingly becoming less and less alien, but he never likes it when I say that, so I'll just keep my mouth shut for now._

_I stare at him. He stares at the floor, now biting his fingernails. He's going to need some prompting._

_“So what was it?” I ask._

_He swallows, still staring at the floor._

_“It's just... yesterday when she did that... She was standing there, looking up at me, needing my praise... She loves me, Jack. She really, really loves me as much as I love her and I can't help thinking...”_

_And instantly I know what's coming, but I'll let him say the words himself._

_“... I can't help thinking that one day... one day I might not be there. One day I'll be dead or captured or... something, and I won't... I won't be there with her anymore. So I... I need her to keep smiling. So... If anything ever happened to me, and Rose and Leah were left alone... I want you to be Leah's dad. Look after them. Whatever makes them happy, just do it.”_

_I stare at him for a moment, taking that in. So I expected the mooching family lovey 'what happens after I'm gone' thing, but the ending's a bit of surprise. Don't need to think about it much, though. “No,” I say._

_The Doctor blinks, obviously surprised. “What?”_

_“I'm not replacing you. I'm not becoming Leah's dad. That's you. I can never replace you. No one can replace you, not for Leah or Rose. She'll never call me dad. Sorry.”_

_He's staring at me. It's like looking into the depths of two puddles of melted chocolate. Confused melted chocolate._

_“I'll always be Leah's uncle whether you're here or not,” I continue, staring right back at him. “But as her uncle I'll look after 'em and make 'em happy, but I'm not her dad, all right?”_

_He relaxes at my words, a small smile appearing on his face. “Thanks, Jack.”_

_“No problem,” I reply simply, then change the subject for him. “You guys staying for dinner?”_

_“Do you mean what are we having for dinner and can you eat with us?” the Doctor wonders vaguely._

_“Yeah,” I admit with no hesitation._

_He rolls his eyes. “Fine. Come on, then.”_

* * *

“Where is he? Where is he?!”

Martha had given up trying to calm Rose down; it was like trying to calm down a lion by poking it with a stick. So she had just let Rose scream at the nearest UNIT guard for what had been about ten minutes now, as UNIT had now arrested her for aiding and abetting the Doctor. And she wasn't taking it well.

“Who the _hell_ do you think you are?!” Rose screamed, fighting the cuffs keeping her on the bed. “I want to see my daughter, I want to find the Doctor!”

“Ma'am, ma'am, please calm down...”

“No!” Rose screamed, kicking out to hopefully try and kick him in the head. “You'd better _bloody_ let me go now or you're gonna get a smack in the face!”

Martha had only heard legends of the infamous Jackie Tyler, and whatever genes she had given to her daughter were very, _very_ much present now. The seemingly quite happy and subdued woman who'd always seemed very in control of her emotions was now raging up a storm, kicking and yelling and screaming all manner of insults at the poor UNIT guard who really was only doing his job.

Suddenly the double doors burst open, the bright light behind silhouetting a man. A quite annoyed-looking man. A quite annoyed, quite dirty and quite smelly Captain Jack Harkness, marching forward looking as though he'd had the worst day in the world.

“Man, I _hate_ waste disposal units!” he yelled, striding straight towards Rose.

“What the hell happened to you?” Martha asked, stunned.

“Excuse me, you can’t…” the UNIT guard began, but was practically shoved out of the way by Jack.

“Got killed, woke up in a waste disposal pod heading towards a sun. Used my manipulator with the sonic and got back to earth three days ago bang in the middle of a woman's bedroom in Sunderland. Manipulator had sparked out, had no phone and had no money so I tried to hitch a ride here, but no one would take me looking like this so I walked the entire way.”

Martha was speechless, but Jack was already next to Rose.

“Where is he?” Rose asked quickly.

“He's back on the ship,” Jack answered. “I don't think they're gonna kill him yet but we need to get there right now. How long has it been since you left the ship?”

“We found Rose and Leah twenty minutes ago,” Martha inputted.

“Is Leah okay?” he asked.

Martha nodded. “She's fine, a few scuffs. She just wants her mum and dad.”

Instantly Rose raged again. The UNIT guard looked terrified.

“Rose!” Jack said quickly, and to Martha's surprise she calmed down instantly. “I got this. Martha, phone?”

She gave it to him immediately. “What's the plan?”

“Mickey's the plan,” Jack replied simply, dialling with one hand and unlocking Rose's handcuffs with the other without even looking.

The UNIT guard moved forward instantly as if to stop them, but Jack turned to him in a flash.

“I'm warning you now, buddy, this ain't the day to screw with me,” he snapped. The guard backed off, now completely unsure of what to do. Jack turned back to Rose to unlock the second one, the phone now to his ear.

“Mickey?” he asked, pulling Rose to her feet and leading her and Martha out of the door towards paediatrics. “Yeah... No, don't talk, just listen. No questions, just do as I say, okay? Get to your computer, now.”

They continued down the corridor, passing confused guard after confused guard. Some tried to stop them but one combined glare from Jack and Rose was enough to make them shrink back into the shadows.

They were just outside the paediatric unit when Jack spoke in the phone again. "There's a spaceship hovering in Earth's teleportation vicinity, probably unregistered and black market. Need you to hack into their comms and eavesdrop... No questions, just do it!"

They reached paediatrics, and found a crowd of UNIT guards gathered around a bed. When they got there they were alarmed to see Leah sitting there curled up crying her heart out with no one making any attempt to comfort her.

"Leah!" Rose exclaimed, going straight to her to hug and kiss her, checking over every inch for every tiniest scratch.

The toddler held onto her tightly as she tried desperately to stifle her tears, but they were coming too quick and too fast. "Where's Daddy?"

Before Rose had any chance to reply, Jack was back on the mobile.

"Yes? ... Okay." He lowered the phone to put it on speaker for them all to hear.

 _"I told you I wanted him unhurt!"_ a voice said, deep and angry.

 _"We couldn't help it, he got his arm in the cheap teleport and it nearly got sliced off,"_ another voice replied.

_"But he's alive?"_

_"Yes, bleeding everywhere, though. But it's keeping him weak. He's less trouble like that."_

_The first voice seemed to sigh. "Fine. We'll meet at the rendezvous."_

_"Hold on. We want our money."_

_"Money?!"_

_"Hey, stinky here might do what you say, but we're not that thick. 500k, please."_

_"I'm not giving you that!"_

_"It's what he's worth."_

_“I broke you out of the Shadow Proclamation!”_

_“You don't want him? Everyone's bidding for him, we've got Sycorax, Silurians, Draconians and Sontarans, even the Ogrons are falling over their feet to get him. The amount's going up every minute.”_

_“Fine!”_ the first voice snapped. _“Sell him to your highest bidder. But this'll be the end of you.”_

There was a bleep, and a small pause before a voice Rose recognised very, very well came through...

 _“Do we have a deal?”_ asked the Sycorax.

_“You are the high bidders, well done sirs. We'll exchange on Limax Minor 5 at 21 point 68 dash 32. We want it in hard cash and no funny business or he's gone.”_

_“Understood,”_ the Sycorax gruffed. _“Chai salutes you.”_

There was a bleep again as the comms switched off.

 _“Was that the Doctor?!”_ Mickey's voice came over the phone anxiously. _“Have they got him?”_

“Yes,” Jack replied honestly. “We'll get to the rendezvous. Mickey, you monitor the comms and keep me posted.”

 _“Okay, Jack,”_ Mickey said, before Jack hung up.

“Daddy?” Leah asked quietly, sniffing. “I want my daddy.”

“Don't we all,” Jack muttered, moving into hug her. “We're gonna get him back, okay, Leah?” He turned to Martha. “Stay here and watch Leah. C'mon, Rose.”

He began to walk away in a stride, Rose jogging to follow him. No words were exchanged as they made their way out of the hospital and straight towards the TARDIS still parked just outside reception.

As soon as they stepped in, the TARDIS was a flurry of beeps, clicks and whirls. Jack jogged straight up to the console, resting a hand on the central column.

“Tardis, we've gotta get to Limax Minor 5 at 21 point 68 dash 32, the Doctor's in trouble.”

She made another flurry of noises. He wasn't sure what she was trying to say to him.

“Rose,” he said, beckoning her over. “Maybe you can talk to her better.”

Rose looked at monitor, then as the buttons and levers. One of the buttons was flashing, so she reached forward and pressed it. Then a dial lit up, so she twisted it. Another dial, then a lever, two buttons...

Jack got it. They both followed the trail around the console, pressing lit up controls until the TARDIS finally began to churn, taking them straight to Limax Minor 5. The ride was rough, but they both just about managed to hold on before the TARDIS finally landed with a thud and shudder, and powered down.

Both of them checked the monitor to look outside. They were in some kind of forest, and through the trees they could see two massive spaceships parked near each other, and as Rose grabbed the controls and zoomed in they could just about make out a humanoid man with blood all over his arm half conscious and being dragged across the grass.

“Got him,” Jack muttered, and they both ran out of the door.

* * *

The Doctor could barely think. His brain was telling him he'd lost a lot of blood, but his brain was also telling him that he liked bananas and it would be amazing if he could make a really big banana tower. Then he thought he might be delirious and going into shock, but also that puppies were cute and why didn't he have a puppy?

His head was banging a headache, and he felt really cold, but for some reason his arm was burning. But whenever he tried to look at it to see the problem there was just too much red on it. He was being dragged somewhere. He forced open his eyes and got a very blurry and distorted view of where he was – in a patch of grass, with two spaceships, some mountains close by and a forest on his right. A few metres in front of him he could see a figure, a kind of familiar figure, what was it called? A... Syco-something. An Ariel? A Prospero? No, that wasn't right...

Suddenly the ground met his face as his arms were abruptly let go of. He groaned and tried to get up but something heavy pressed down on his back and he couldn't move. There were some gruff voices but he wasn't really concentrating very much and couldn't make much sense of the words. After a moment his arm was suddenly grabbed hold of and agony shot right through it, surprising both him and whoever had taken it as a scream of pain came out, what he assumed to be, his own mouth.

The arm was let go of and he sagged in relief. After a moment the pain died and went back to that burning sensation. Though he wasn't quite sure why he couldn't feel his fingers. He wish he knew. He liked his fingers. His fingers did things he liked doing.

Someone was talking, so he decided to concentrate on the words, just to try and work out what was happening.

“The arm is almost fully severed,” one of the people in a red robe muttered from above him.

Were they talking about him? Things weren't making sense and hadn't for a while, but still a very primal instinct was telling him that he was in a bad situation and he had to get away. What had happened to his arm?

“I do not care. Cut it off, we can sell it.”

The Doctor took a moment to process that through his hazy head, but the moment he realised that they were actually going to _take his arm off_ alarm bells were ringing inside his head. Suddenly he was absolutely full of energy and he yelled a primal yell, scrambling to his feet and instantly staggering in a somewhat drunken version of running away from them. He didn't know where he was going and frankly he didn't care, as long as it was away from the people who wanted to cut off his arm.

“You and you! After him!” the Sycorax leader yelled from behind him, but distances were deceptive so he had no idea how far away he was. But it would be easier to lose them in the forest so he ran straight into it, only really wanting to collapse and pass out but he fought it, knowing this was his only chance to get away.

He ran and he ran and he ran, the world in front of him moving two times slower than he was running, but his feet seemed to instinctively know what they were doing and the running footsteps behind him steadily grew quieter. He looked back, just about managing to get a glimpse of the small figure of a Sycorax before he suddenly felt hands on him, stopping him in his tracks. Something had grabbed him.

“No!” the Doctor yelled, trying to fight off whatever had caught him, but the arms were resilient, and a hand clamped over his mouth before a familiar voice was in his ear...

“Doctor, it's me, Jack. Calm down, I've got you.”

He instantly sagged and fell silent, looking up to see it was indeed Jack. The ex-Time Agent offered him a little smile before hauling the Doctor into a piggyback, and began to run with him through the forest to a big blue box and a blonde woman who both made him feel very warm inside. Suddenly he had this strange feeling of complete safety, and he allowed himself to finally pass out.

* * *

Rose looked at the Doctor, her eyes widening in complete disbelief at what she was seeing. He was pale and unconscious, his lips blue in the sure sign of shock from blood loss. He had bruises on his face from being hit and knocked around. His right arm was bending awkwardly with blood both old and new coating it, so much she couldn’t tell where the blood was coming from. His shirt and most of his trousers were absolutely soaked in red.

Then suddenly Rose's eyes were on fire. Her entire face dropped into this unreadable expression as she gazed at her bonded partner limp on Jack's back, blood everywhere...

“Jack, take him back into the Tardis,” she said, but it wasn't her normal voice. It was softer and seemed to be laced with a sense of complete authority.

Jack frowned. “What?”

“Take him back into the Tardis,” she repeated calmly, turning away to face the direction of the oncoming Sycorax.

Jack's frown deepened. “But what about the-”

“I'll deal with them,” she interrupted, still in that soft voice. “Go.”

For a moment Jack was torn, looking between Rose and the direction of the TARDIS.

Rose simply turned her head to look at him and a smile appeared on her face, slowly, deliberately. But it had no trace of emotion whatsoever. “It's okay,” she said. “Make sure he's safe. I'll see you in a bit.”

Then she simply walked away, straight into the path of the Sycorax.

Jack suddenly felt very cold inside. He'd recognised those eyes. Those were Trevor's eyes.

He decided he didn't want to see what happened next.

 

 


	19. Uncle Jack Says...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> UNIT treat the Doctor, but refuse Martha's help. UNIT try to take Leah away.

Jack had called ahead to Martha, who was waiting outside the TARDIS with a crowd of medical personnel when Rose and Jack arrived. Jack quickly put the now half-conscious Doctor onto the waiting trolley, the Time Lord was staring up at the sky not really processing what was happening around him.

“Doctor, take slow, deep breaths, okay?” Martha told him as she held onto his arm, trying to stem the seemingly constant bleeding as they ran him back into the hospital. He didn't seem to register her. He was breathing rapidly – pale, clammy and sweating and there was no telling just how long he'd been like this. His arm wasn't a healthy colour at all now.

Rose and Jack ran with them all the way to surgery, but as soon as he disappeared through the double doors he was gone. Within ten seconds Rose was already pacing a hole in the floor.

"Rose," Jack said gently, his hand on her arm to stop her mid-pace. "Let's go clean up, see Leah and get something to eat, okay?" he said, looking at the blood all down her shirt. He was going to try and think that it was just all the Doctor's blood and no one else's.

She looked as though she was about to argue, but eventually nodded and allowed Jack to take her hand and pull her back in the direction of the TARDIS. But suddenly the doors of the emergency room opened and Martha appeared, looking a little riled.

"What?" Rose asked anxiously, on high-alert again. "Is he...?"

Martha held up a silencing hand. "They kicked me out because I resigned from UNIT..."

Rose gaped. "But you're the only one who knows anything about his physiology!"

Martha grimaced at that. "I know."

“They can't do that!”

“Martha?” a voice suddenly called from down the corridor, and a UNIT guard appeared. Jack instinctively stepped in front of Rose, but Martha held up a hand.

“It's okay,” she assured them. “Johnny?”

“We got trouble,” the guard said, glancing between her and Rose. “Unit are coming to arrest you, Rose. Permanently. The Doctor's going to be put under arrest the moment he's out of surgery and they're going to take custody of Leah."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "We'll see about that," he grated, pulling out his gun.

"No,” Martha said quickly, resting a hand on Jack's shooting arm. “Not while the Doctor needs help. You'll make it worse for him."

Jack gritted his teeth, a few seconds passing before he finally put his gun back in its holster, resigning to the situation. "I'll get Leah back to the Tardis, and Johnny is it?" The guard nodded. "Could you sneak out Rose?"

The guard opened his mouth to reply, but Rose got there first.

"No, I'm stayin' here with the Doctor."

"Rose..." Jack began, unsure.

"Please," she begged, glancing at the surgery doors. "I just need to be with him."

Jack swallowed nervously. The Doctor hadn't looked well at all. He couldn't really blame her. “Okay. Just stay out of sight.”

She nodded. Martha quickly took her arm and led her out of the corridor as Jack turned on his heel and ran to paediatrics.

* * *

Leah was distraught and incredibly frustrated. She hadn't seen her mum, dad or Uncle Jack in forever and absolutely nobody was telling her where they were no matter how many times she asked. Whenever she tried to leave to go and find them, a few big, scary men with guns told her to stay put. She had just burst into tears, hugging Bundy to her chest.

It was evening when someone finally came to talk to her, but it wasn't anyone she cared about. It was some man with curly brown hair in a long white coat, with wide eyes and a weird smile that had something wrong with it that Leah couldn't quite work out.

“Hello, Leah,” the man said. “My name is Michael. May I please have a seat?”

Leah stared at him, wiping her eyes and hugging Bundy more tightly before she finally nodded.

“Thank you,” he replied, sitting on the bed with pen and clipboard in hand. “Now, Leah, I am a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is...”

“I know what a sa-ky-triss is,” Leah replied abruptly, rudely. “I wanna see mummy and daddy.”

“Oh, well it's good you know, Leah,” the psychiatrist continued, seemingly oblivious to her tone and her second comment. “I specialise in child psychiatry, and I have been assigned to you. This means any thoughts or feelings you have in the coming weeks, you can speak to me directly about them, I will always be here to listen to you in a non-judgemental way. Perhaps we could even be friends?”

Leah stared at him. “Unka Jack says sa-ky-trisses are whiney weirdoes who like to analyse you whenever you cough and all they do is stick their noses into other people's business for a living. And that you should never be friends with one cos they screw up your head. He says he met one inna bar once.”

He laughed in reply. “This Jack sound like a character, is he an alien too?”

“No,” Leah replied as though he was the biggest idiot in existence.

The psychiatrist seemed to stop for a moment, a little stunned at that before he managed to gather himself together. “So tell me about your life. Where do you live?”

“Tardis.”

“So do you stay there all the time? Or do you go out?”

“Do you stay in _your_ house all the time?” Leah shot back.

The psychiatrist lost a little more integrity. “Well, um, no, but...”

“Then that's a stupid questin'.”

“I suppose it was,” the psychiatrist conceded, laughing and noting something down on his clipboard. “Do you go to school?”

“Daddy teaches me.”

“What does he teach you?”

“Everything.”

“What's everything?”

“Everything,” Leah replied indignantly. “D'you know what everything means?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then why'd you ask?”

He was a little stunned by that. “You know, you're very smart,” he continued, ever positive.

“Wila'fammi loka’eon,” Leah muttered.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Go away. I want my mummy and daddy.”

“We will get to that in a moment,” the psychiatrist assured her. “I would like to find out more about you, first, if that's okay?”

“No,” Leah replied straight. “I want mummy and daddy.”

“Okay, well you need answers, I understand. Mummy and Daddy... they are no longer able to take care of you.”

Leah suddenly fell dead silent.

“They did something not allowed and they're being taken to a place where they can learn to not do it again,” the psychiatrist continued gently. “But we're going to look after you, and find you a loving home with new parents who will love you very much.”

“I don't want new parents!” Leah suddenly burst out. Tears were clinging at her eyes again. “I wanna talk to my mummy and daddy!”

“I'm so sorry, Leah.”

“Go away!” she yelled, jumping off the bed and running through the drawn curtains into the aisle. Instantly she was apprehended by four UNIT guards, their guns pointing straight at her. She froze on the spot.

“What the _hell_ are you doing?!” a voice came from the doorway, and she looked up to find her Uncle Jack standing there, staring at the situation and absolutely infuriated. He ran over to her, scooping her up and holding her tightly; protectively. “You think you're _big_ , pointing your guns at a _two-year-old?!”_

Simultaneously all the UNIT guards lowered their guns, looking very guilty.

Jack glared at them for a moment, before looking at Leah. “We're going back to the Tardis. Have you got everything?”

“Bundy,” she sobbed, holding out a hand in the direction of her bed. Jack moved over, pulling back the curtains and almost walking straight into some random man on the other side coming the other way.

“Who the hell are you?” Jack spat, hardly in the mood for pleasantries.

“My name is Michael, I'm a child psychiatrist...”

“Psychiatrist,” Jack grated, diving to grab Bundy and giving her to Leah who held on with all her might to the bear. “Stay away from Leah.”

“I was only trying to...”

“He told me mummy and daddy couldn't take care of me anymore and I was gonna get new parents,” Leah choked out, in flood of tears again.

Jack looked at Leah in horror, and then back at the man. Then Leah. Then the man. Finally, he looked back at Leah, his eyes wide.

“Leah, can you just cover your ears and close your eyes really tightly for a minute, okay?” he told her gently, to which she obliged. Then he raised a fist and slammed it right into the psychiatrist's face, knocking the man out instantly.

Without so much as a glance at the man, he stepped over the body and through the curtains, telling Leah to open her eyes again. She was still crying.

“Don't cry, I'm here, we're leaving now,” he said gently to her, kissing her forehead.

“I want mummy and daddy,” she sobbed, clinging onto him.

“We're sorting it, it'll be soon. You're not going anywhere but home and mummy and daddy are coming home too,” Jack assured her before turning to leave.

Instantly the guards were a wall in front of him.

“That kid is now property of UNIT. Hand it over,” one of them instructed, as though he already expected Jack to do as he was told.

“No,” Jack grated. The fuse on his impending bomb was becoming very, very short. He had a gun and he wasn't afraid to use it. "I have total legal custody as the legitimate next of kin. She is now in my care. Excuse me.”

He tried to push past, but the UNIT guards were unrelenting.

“Doesn't work that way here, pal. Hand the alien kid over or we'll arrest you, too.”

“You've got no hold on me, _pal_ ,” Jack spat, the last word somewhat insincere. “I'm not a member of the public. I have no record, no birth certificate or address. I don't exist. I'm not an alien, either – I'm human. I'm not something that exists in your rulebook so you've no control over me, and I'm immune to arrest. I could shoot you right now and no one could arrest me for it. So how about you do the people who love you a favour and take a step to the right, or the next time your wife sees you she'll have to assemble the pieces of you together like a flat-pack desk.”

The mouthy guard suddenly fell very silent. After three seconds, he took a step to the right.

“Good choice,” Jack said, slipping through the gap to take the toddler back to the TARDIS. As soon as they passed through the door, Jack let out a sigh of utter relief.

“Thank god that worked, I was bluffing,” Jack admitted, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Leah laughed a little.

* * *

By the time they were back at the TARDIS it was nearly 9pm, so he got her changed and settled her into bed.

“Is the monster gone now?” she asked quietly as Jack tucked her in.

“Yeah,” he replied, kissing her. “You're safe.”

“When are mummy and daddy coming back?”

“We're sorting it. But I made a promise to daddy to look after you when he wasn't here and that's what I'm doing. We all love you lots, and they'll be back soon. Go to sleep, okay?”

“Okay,” she said quietly, closing her eyes. He sat next to the bed for a while, stroking her hair, until the rhythmic breathing began and she was asleep.

The door suddenly opened quietly, Martha sticking her head in. “Jack?” she whispered, glancing at Leah. “We need to talk.”

“Now?”

“Urgently,” she reinforced.

He got up from the chair as quietly as he could, tiptoeing ever so quietly out of the door.

“It's Rose,” she said quietly after the door had closed.

“What? They've got her?”

“No, well... Something happened, twenty minutes ago she just began to get stomach pains and started bleeding, then she hyperventilated and fainted... I had to get her into emergency, she could hardly breathe.”

“What?! Is she okay?”

“I don't know,” Martha confessed. “I've never seen anything like it, it was so fast.”

“Shit,” Jack breathed. “Okay, you check the Doctor, I'll go to Rose.”

“What about Leah?”

“The Tardis can look after her. Right, old girl?” he directed to the ceiling. The TARDIS responded with a sudden blow of warm air through the corridor and a flash of lights. “I'll get back as soon as I can.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation  
> Wila'fammi loka’eon – Smarter than you


	20. Daddy Needs a New Spark Plug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose receives some terrible news as the Doctor struggles in a state of delirium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning - Contains references to miscarriage

When Jack got to the emergency room through the now annoying obligatory wall of guards, he found an extremely distraught Rose lying on the bed, crying her eyes out.

Jack was alarmed to say the least, rushing to her instantly to gather her up in a hug. “Rose? Rose, what is it? What's wrong?”

She was crying so much she couldn't get any words out, so instead Jack looked up at the UNIT doctor standing in the room enquiringly. “What's wrong with her?”

He looked quite, quite solemn in return. “I'm very sorry to inform you, sir, but she's had a very severe and unusual form of a miscarriage.”

Jack blinked in surprise; a bullet between the eyes. “What?! You mean... You mean she was pregnant?”

“She... was,” the UNIT doctor confirmed, nodding slowly.

Rose cried harder. Jack held her tighter in response.

“Rose, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were pregnant... You never told me. The Doctor never told me.”

“I... I did... didn't... kn... know...” she choked out, needing a few moments to gather some breath before managing to get out her next words, “I wa... wanna s-see the Do... Doct-tor...”

He kissed her forehead, rubbing her back gently. “No, you need to go and see Leah.”

“I wanna see him!” she demanded through her tears.

”Rose, he's still in surgery and is gonna be a while."

“You... You don't c-care..."

“Don't you dare say that,” Jack suddenly snapped angrily, drawing back. “Of _course_ I god-damn care, Rose, but your daughter has been crying constantly for her mummy and daddy, she was told you were never coming back, and you need to see her _right_ now so she can see you're actually still fucking  alive, all right?!”

Rose stopped protesting instantly, looking up at him with watery eyes.

“Look,” Jack began, hands in the air. “Sorry I shouted. But you've gotta go and see her.”

She nodded, wiping at her eyes. He helped her stand up, steadying her on her feet.

“You're Martha's friends, aren't you?” the UNIT doctor suddenly asked, stepping forward. “With the Doctor?”

Jack nodded.

“Unit are waiting outside to arrest you, Rose,” he warned. “Let me take you out the other way.”

* * *

They managed to sneak out of the hospital without being seen, running straight to the TARDIS. There they went straight to Leah's room, Rose taking a seat next to the girl's bed. She was asleep, and Rose didn't want to wake her up, so she just sat there stroking back her hair until Martha appeared.

“The guards wouldn't let me through, but I got a peek through the window and it looks very under control,” she told them quietly so as not to wake Leah.

“We need to do something about them,” Jack murmured. “We can't keep avoiding them and sneaking around, not with the Doctor like he is.”

Martha nodded. “Let's talk to Colonel Mace. Try and discuss a solution.”

Jack nodded at that. “Okay, let's do this,” he began, making to get up but Martha stopped him.

“No, me. I know how to speak with him,” she assured the other two. “Trust me.”

Jack gave one sharp nod. “All right. I'll go and check the Doctor. Rose?” She looked up at him, her eyes still filled with tears. “You gonna be okay here with Leah?”

She nodded, before looking back down at Leah and stroking back her long brown locks from her eyes. Jack stared at her for a moment, before finally moving forward to give her a supportive hug and kiss. Then he left with Martha.

As they shut the door and moved into the corridor, the inevitable question came.

“What's wrong with Rose?”

Jack sighed. “I think you'd better ask her. Just get Unit off of their backs.”

* * *

It was midnight. Both Martha and Jack had been gone for around two hours, and Rose hadn't really moved from Leah's bedside.

She didn't really want to eat, or drink, or sleep; she just wanted to talk to the Doctor. Well, really, she wanted to talk to her Mum, but since that was impossible the Doctor was the next best thing. He always knew exactly what to do and say to her when she was upset. Sometimes it would just be a smile, sometimes it was a kiss and a hug of comfort, and sometimes one sentence would come out of his lips and instantly everything would be okay – stupid sentences, sentences like, “oh, never mind. Let's go to the Reichstag on the 4th May 1941 and heckle Hitler”.

Except he'd been bleeding so badly. Like a tap on half. She'd never seen him hurt as badly as when he disappeared through those doors. Not even when Leah had been born. And that had felt like hell... She didn't even have a word for how this could be described. She had every faith in UNIT to fix him, but things like that didn't have some special magical spray. What if he'd lost all mobility in that arm? What... What if they'd had to cut it off?

And now she'd lost his baby.

She knew it was ridiculous, she knew it wasn't exactly her fault, it had probably been when the creature had grabbed her. It had sucked the life out of her and, in turn, the baby. He wouldn't be angry at her in the slightest, but for some reason her head was telling her he was going to be so, so angry. She was angry at herself. Like she had failed the child. Like she had failed the Doctor.

“Mummy?” a little voice asked from in front of her, and she looked up to Leah lying there hugging Bundy, gazing up at her with those big brown eyes.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Rose replied gently, leaning forward to give her a big hug.

“I missed you,” the girl told her.

“I missed you too, sorry we left you hangin'.”

“S'ok,” Leah said, still gazing at her. “Mummy, why are you crying?”

Rose quickly sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the cuffs of her sleeves. “Don't worry, borin' grown up stuff.”

“Is Daddy coming back?”

“Yeah, he is. He just got a bit hurt fightin' those creatures but he's bein' mended now.”

“Is it like when Auntie Martha's car broke and Unka Mickey mended it?”

Rose couldn't help but giggle at that. “Yeah, exactly. They need to replace Daddy's spark plug. He'll be back really soon.”

“Okay,” Leah replied, turning over. “He can have mine if they can't find one.”

“I'll let 'em know,” Rose replied. Even though she felt awful she couldn't help but smile. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

There was a light knock on the door and Jack appeared, sticking his head in. “Rose, news.”

Rose nodded, wiping at her eyes again before giving Leah a quick kiss on the forehead and leaving into the corridor.

“The Doctor's out of surgery and fine. Martha's sorted Unit. You're free, but Martha had to agree to her being freelance for them and for you to have escorts whilst you're on their premises, and the Doctor has to leave as soon as he's able. There's a technicality, and to stop them tracking you guys you're basically now Torchwood employees.”

Rose forced a smile through her misery. “What d'you want me to do, boss?”

He raised a smile at that. “You know what? Take the next fifty years off. Go and see the Doctor. Martha's waiting. I'll stay with Leah.”

“Thank you, Jack,” she said, reaching forward to hug him.

Jack held her in return. “You're welcome. Get going.”

* * *

Rose was escorted into the hospital by a UNIT guard and taken to recovery where the Doctor was. Martha met her on the way in, taking her hand to reassure her.

“He's been sedated to try and get him to go into a healing coma,” Martha explained lowly as they approached the bed. “He's been a bit restless.”

Rose just nodded, going through the UNIT guards to find her partner lying on the bed with a couple of nurses ferreting around him, his arm secured in a plaster cast that almost coated his entire arm. He was attached to several wires, his face very pale and he was gasping breaths of air with his head lolled on the pillow.

On Rose and Martha's approach the nurses cleared straight away, knowing who she was. She went to him, taking his hand and squeezing it a little.

She looked up at Martha with teary eyes. “Sorry, can you gimme a minute?”

Martha nodded politely, leaving out of the emergency room to wait outside the door.

Rose turned her attention back to the Doctor. “I'm here now,” she whispered, tucking his hair behind his ear. “Sorry I took so long. I... I need to talk to you... Because... Because I had...” She paused for a moment, swallowing her tears and wiping her eyes before managing to continue, “because I had a miscarriage. And I know I'm crazy and you'll laugh at me for even thinkin' it but... But I need to know you're... I just need to know that you're not angry at me, yeah? Cos it was yours... And now I don't have it anymore. So just tell me it's okay. Please?”

There was a long pause. Rose didn't really expect him to answer her, he was more of a sounding board. But suddenly his eyes opened. She gasped in surprise, bursting into a smile... but it didn't last long. As he tried to get up he moved his arm and suddenly screamed in pain, cutting right through the dulled atmosphere of the hospital like a knife.

The nurses ran over instantly as Rose jumped back in surprise, her eyes wide and hands over her mouth in a gasp. Despite the fact he was yelling in pain he was still trying to get up, completely oblivious to the people surrounding him.

"Doctor, calm down!" one of the nurses said, holding him down as gently yet as forcefully as she could.

He stopped fighting, staring up at the ceiling with tears streaming down his face. "I need to... I left the kettle on and I need to turn it off..."

"Don't you worry about that," one of the nurses replied, smiling gently at him. "Look, your wife is here."

Rose just stood where she was, staring at him lying there so damaged.

He looked up at her with a drunken smile. "Hello," he said, before he twinged his arm again and cried out once more.

Rose felt like crying again, but she was pretty sure she'd run out of tears to shed. "Hello," she whispered.

The nurses took that as a cue to leave, backing off to let the two talk in private. Rose moved forward again, wiping at her eyes once more.

"Why does my arm hurt?" he asked genuinely, looking at his plastered arm. "What's all this stuff on it?"

Rose sniffed, taking his working hand to squeeze it reassuringly. "You hurt it. But you'll get better. Just don't move it, yeah?"

"Why not?" he asked, and moved it. He instantly cried out in pain again, the tear tracks staining his face very quickly.

Rose swallowed, wiping his cheeks dry with her hand. "Don't move it, yeah? It hurts you."

"Mmm," he agreed, and then looked back at her. "Rose, you've been crying. Who made you cry?"

For a flicker of a moment she thought she could see clarity in his eyes... "Doctor, I need to... There's somethin' I need to tell you," she began quietly.

Either he ignored her, or didn't even hear her. He looked back at his arm again. "I can't feel my fingers."

Rose sniffed again, resigning as she squeezed his hand again and offered him a watery smile. "You'll get better. You need to go into a healin' coma, yeah?"

"Yeah," he agreed, like he didn't quite understand what he was agreeing to. “Don't cry.”

Then without even a beat, he closed his eyes and spontaneously passed out.

Rose gazed at him for a moment, before leaning forward to kiss him. “I love you. Come back really soon.”

She took a few more moments to watch his face, before getting up to go back to Martha. She was tried, aching and worried to boot, so the only thing she could do was sleep. Maybe the Doctor would be able to understand her tomorrow.

When she reached Martha she was given a smile that could probably light up a Christmas Tree. “Are you okay?”

Rose nodded, wiping at her eyes again.

“Did they find out what was wrong with you earlier?”

Rose sighed, swallowing back even more tears. It was like her face had somehow broken and now all she could do was cry. She ignored the question. “I just... I just wanna go to bed.”

Martha nodded, respecting her privacy. “Okay. Get back to the Tardis. I'll let you know if something happens.”


	21. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose continues to struggle to come to terms with her miscarriage as the Doctor remains incredibly ill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last block! :D

Rose barely slept while the Doctor was in Intensive Care over the next few days. She'd wake up every thirty minutes, automatically crying in the darkness. Her head was still a complete mess and she didn't want to advertise her miscarriage, so only Jack knew. Although he was being very supportive, looking after her and Leah and listening to everything she had to say she couldn't bring herself to talk to him about the deeper feelings she was having. A tide of complete guilt. Anger. Despair. Helplessness. He'd think she was mad, and maybe she was.

All she wanted to do was talk to the Doctor, and for him to respond as if he'd actually heard her. That was it. He'd been given the maximum sedation and little bit more, but it was still a few days before he had finally gone into a healing coma. Even then he kept ripping out of it, crying out with pain before sinking back into unconsciousness at the drop of a hat.

When he wasn't doing that, he still wasn't coherent. Even if he looked wide-awake and as though he was listening, he wasn't. She'd told him she'd miscarried about six times, but he still didn't seem to hear or understand her, just talking about something ridiculous that made no sense.

She'd lost track of how much she'd cried. She was sick of crying. She wanted him back so badly. In fact, she wanted him back so much it was actually making her angry that she couldn't talk to him. Angry at him, then angry at herself for being angry at him. It was killing her inside knowing she could be so resentful of him for something that wasn’t even his fault.

It had been a week since his surgery, and Rose was off to see him bang on 10am. It had become a daily ritual, increasingly feeling more and more pointless with every passing day. But she hung onto that glimmer of hope as she was escorted into the ICU, followed by Jack. When they reached his bed, he'd woken up again, staring up at the ceiling unblinkingly.

“Doctor?” Rose tried, moving to lean over him.

His eyes snapped to her face. “Hello, nurse,” he murmured.

Rose took that sentence like a punch in the stomach; completely winding her. She resisted the urge to cry again as she leaned forward to kiss him. “Not a nurse. It's me, it's Rose.”

“Yeah, you look like a rose,” he said, staring at her. “Your eyes are all red.”

Rose gave a half smile at that. She hardly felt like a full one. “Doctor, I really, _really_ need you,” she croaked. “I need you to wake up. Please come back. I need to talk to you. I'm a mess and you're the one that makes it better, so please. Please wake up.”

“I'm listening,” he suddenly said, staring at her.

Rose saw an opportunity, and she decided to take it. “I'm so sorry, I feel like hell, like it's my fault and...” she spontaneously burst into sobs. “God, I... I've... I've lost our baby. Your baby. It was in me and now it's gone...”

“That was careless, did you check under the fridge?”

She sobbed even harder. “Please, _please_ understand me, I _need_ you...”

He gazed at her. For a flicker of a moment she thought he might be understanding her, but he suddenly closed his eyes again and turned over with a wince. “I'm thirsty, can you get me a drink?”

Suddenly she was angry, irrationally angry at the fact he couldn't comprehend what she was saying. “Wake up!” she yelled, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him on impulse. He screamed out in pain and instantly Jack dived to pull her off, where she sank like a stone in his arms and cried her heart out.

* * *

Jack took her out, calming her down and taking her back to the TARDIS to leave her in the care of Martha before returning to the Doctor, finding him still lying there staring at the ceiling.

He looked up as soon as Jack appeared, giving a little smile. “Hello. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, Doc,” Jack replied, taking a seat next to him. “Anything.”

“Well, there's just this girl that I really love, she's called Rose, she's really beautiful. She comes to see me every day but... Well, she's always crying and I don't know why.  Do you know why? I want to help her feel better.”

Jack offered him a smile. “Sorry, Doc, that's one you've gotta find out for yourself. And you can help by going into a healing coma and staying in it for a few days, okay?”

“Okay, I'll do that,” the Doctor replied. “And... can you tell Rose that I love her and I'm coming back really soon?” he asked, his expression portraying someone who didn't quite know what he was saying. “And can you ask Jack if he can look after my girls?”

Jack smiled. “He will. Good night, Doctor.”

“Night,” he replied, closing his eyes. Ten seconds later the heart-rate monitor flat-lined as he finally fell into a healing coma.

Jack's smile fell, leaning forward to kiss him on the forehead. Discounting Leah's birth, Jack hadn't seen him this bad since after the Valiant. Whilst Martha had been sorting out her family and Tom, the Doctor had slowly been withering. He had forced himself onwards to burn the Master's body until he'd finally walked back into the TARDIS and collapsed.

Jack had been there, though. For a while after they had hovered in the vortex, the Doctor slipping between consciousness and unconsciousness; weaker than a new-born and unable to feed himself. Jack had taken charge, getting him everything he needed until he had finally grasped the real world again.

Then they had talked. Everything from the day they'd met to their experience on the Valiant. Jack came to see him a lot differently as he nursed him back to health. He'd given Jack a new perspective; a drive. Eventually the Doctor recovered and they had gone on to get Martha like nothing had happened before eventually parting, but Jack would never forget that. He owed the Doctor so much. It was his duty to start repaying him.

With one last look he left to go and do exactly what the Doctor had asked.

* * *

A few days passed as the month crept into March, and the Doctor had thankfully stayed in his healing coma. But Rose wasn't fairing well at all, far too inside herself and her mind. Jack attempted tried to get her to talk about it, but the Doctor was the only one she wanted to talk to.

The following morning was the worst so far. She woke up at 7am feeling the lowest she had since this whole thing had begun, but to her complete surprise found Leah walking into the bedroom holding a tray with a plastic bowl of cereal and a plastic cup of orange juice on it.

The girl beamed at her. “Mummy, I made you bek-fast.”

Rose took the proffered tray, staring at it. The cereal had far too much milk and was spilt all over the tray, as was the orange juice, but it didn't matter, because it made her smile. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she said, instantly feeling a lot, lot better.

“You're welcome,” Leah said with a smile, and rushed out the door.

* * *

Leah went straight to her room to get a blanket, her bunny slippers and Bundy. She tucked the bear under her arm and stuck her thumb in her mouth, dragging the blanket along the floor as she walked back out, through the console room and out of the TARDIS doors.

She toddled into the reception, so quiet Pam didn't notice her. It wasn't until she walked up to the desk and asked, “s’cuse me?” did Pam jump out of her skin and look around in alarm. She looked around at her eye-level.

“Hello?” she asked, wide-eyed, talking into the nothingness.

“Hello,” Leah said, and finally Pam looked down at the toddler in her pyjamas. “D’you know where ma Daddy is, please?”

“Are you Leah?”

“Yeah. Where is he?”

Pam gave the girl a gentle smile. “Where's your mummy?”

“No, where's my daddy?” Leah corrected.

“Are you sure you should be here?” Pam reiterated, persisting with her smile.

“If you don't tell me I find him, mmkay?” Leah told her straight.

“If you just wait here, I'll find your Auntie Martha...”

“No, thank you,” Leah said, and ran off through the doors.

“Leah! Wait!” Pam called, but Leah was already halfway down the corridor.

She saw the signs on the wall, remembering her uncle had said something about an ICU, and there it was listed on the wall with an arrow. So she followed the series of arrows through the corridors for around ten minutes until she reached the ICU. As she passed through the doors, she saw lined down each side aliens in bed, silent and on a menagerie of machines.

It was scary, at least until she got to the middle and saw the familiar form of her daddy lying on a bed, sleeping. There were no guards around and two nurses were at the end of the ward with another patient, so Leah dragged a chair next to the bed, used it to climb on it and curl up next to her dad. She covered herself with the blanket and snuggled up to him with Bundy on his chest, closing her eyes.

* * *

After Leah's breakfast, Rose had somehow dozed again and fallen asleep for three straight hours – the longest in ages. She was only awoken by Jack opening the door, peering around for a moment before moving back out.

“Jack?” she asked, sitting up.

“Nothing, don't worry, go to sleep,” Jack said, far from innocently.

“Worryin’,” Rose said, staring at him.

“We err... We can't find Leah.”

Rose was just taking in a deep breath to completely flip when she was stopped by Martha running to the door with her arms in the air.

“It's okay, I found her!” she yelled, looking between them. “She's with the Doctor.”

“Is he awake?”

“Yeah, he just woke up. He seems to understand me, now.”

Rose’s heart instantly started up in a samba, already getting out of bed. “I gotta see him.”

* * *

When Rose got there the Doctor was indeed awake, chatting with Leah who was curled up under a blanket with Bundy in her arms on his bed. When he saw Rose, his face shone like the Blackpool Lights.

“Rose!” he called, and was very quickly shushed by several people in the wing. “Sorry,” he said quietly, before looking back up at her and grinning again.

The relief that flooded Rose's body could only be equated to a sudden drug rush of some kind. Instantly all of her tensed muscles she didn't even know she had relaxed, her head stopped buzzing with a million things. All she could feel was pure relief, and pure love for the two people on that bed, smiling away as though nothing had happened.

She reached them, and now she was smiling. The Doctor gave her a one-handed hug and a big kiss on the lips to go with it.

“Ewww,” Leah complained loudly.

The Doctor and Rose laughed at her, and kissed again.

“Missed you,” Rose whispered when she pulled away.

“I missed me too,” he replied with his ever persistent grin.

“How are you feelin’?”

“Arm hurts, and I feel like I'm drugged up so much I'm somewhere in the atmosphere,” he admitted.

Rose just smiled. She couldn't help but smile. For a moment she almost forgot, but then the memory of the miscarriage hit her like a ten tonne rock and her expression fell.

The Doctor noted it. “Oh, sad thought,” he pointed out, gazing at her. “What's wrong?”

“I... I need to tell you something,” she muttered, looking down at Leah, then at Jack behind her. “Jack, can you take Leah somewhere for a minute?”

“I don't wanna go!” Leah protested, but she was already in Jack's arms. The Doctor noted his expression had also spontaneously turned very solemn.

“This isn't good, is it?” the Doctor supposed, watching Jack and Leah leave. “What is it?”

Rose swallowed, taking a seat, and his good hand.

“Excuse me, sir, ma'am? We need to take you for a post-op x-ray,” a nurse said politely.

“Can you give us a minute please?” Rose asked quickly, and the nurse nodded, backing away as Rose looked back at him. “Look, um... When that thing had you, it threw you in the wall and you got knocked out... And after that it was a mess and the other things caught up with us. One of them grabbed me and started... you know. It felt like I was dyin', but Jack stopped it before it went too far. But... After that... I...”

She suddenly had to stop as a choked sob came from her throat and a tear slid down her face.

The Doctor was alarmed. “What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?”

“After the... the accident, I started... Well, I started b-bleedin' and I f-fainted and couldn't b-breathe and...” She paused again, gathering her breath as he gazed at her in concern. “Doctor... I... I had a miscarriage. I lost a baby.”

The Doctor's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “You... You were pregnant?”

“Yeah...”

“But...”

“Sir,” the nurse interrupted again, moving close. “I'm sorry but we've only got a short slot...”

“Hold on!” Rose protested, hands in the air. “Doctor, I was p-pregnant, but I... but I lost it... And... And I need to... to know you're not mad at me...?”

He just stared at her, in complete shock. He said nothing.

“Doctor?” Rose prompted, her eyes withering with every passing second.

He didn't reply. He just looked at the nurse, and nodded. They all swooped in to take him away.

“No! Doctor!” Rose called, following the bed as it travelled up the aisle, but she couldn't get any further than the doors. “Doctor!”

Then within three seconds she was alone, standing in the ward staring at the doors, absolutely distraught.  



	22. Aftershocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor is taken back to the TARDIS, but the miscarriage is having mental and physical effects on him.

As per the agreement with UNIT, the Doctor had to leave now that he was awake and coherent. The x-ray had been approved and instantly they were under pressure from UNIT to leave, despite the fact the Doctor was in too much pain to even get dressed. He couldn't move his plastered arm, only rewarded with a scream of pain whenever he did. He was also still incredibly weak and could barely even co-ordinate his hands to get a grip on anything.

Rose was watching him every step of the way. He was refusing all her offers of help. He was refusing to even speak to her.

It hurt her.

When Jack arrived twenty minutes later, the Doctor had only managed to get one arm in a t-shirt. The Captain looked at Rose, who was standing there with teary eyes. He looked back at the Doctor, and moved forward with a sigh.

“Okay, arm up,” he instructed.

“I'm fine,” the Doctor insisted.

“You're quite clearly crap at this so please accept our help,” Jack ordered more than asked, beckoning Rose. “Rose, get his trousers on.”

“I'm fine!” the Doctor repeated, annoyed.

“Shut up,” Jack demanded, pulling off his shirt to start again. He pushed the shirt carefully up the Doctor's plastered arm, then put his head through and took his arm to slide it into the sleeve.

“There, eight seconds, no pain,” Jack stated. “Wasn't hard, was it?”

The Doctor didn't answer as Rose was pulling pyjama trousers onto him. Jack had to help him stand up to get them all the way, and he daren't let go of him as he was quite, quite weak.

“Ready to leave?” Jack asked.

The Doctor nodded, and suddenly he abruptly and completely lost consciousness.

“Whoa,” Jack said quickly, gathering up his legs to carry him.

“What's wrong?” Rose asked anxiously.

“Something pretty normal,” Jack assured her, lying the Doctor back down again on the bed. “Low blood, hardly had a healing coma and infected with Yukkila. It's gonna happen.”

“He seemed fine earlier,” Rose muttered, brushing back his hair.

“Energy spike,” Jack reasoned.

A UNIT guard poked his head around the curtain. “What's the delay?” he demanded to know.

“He's fainted,” Jack replied.

“Do you need a doctor?”

“No, just get us a wheelchair.”

The UNIT guard nodded, and then left again.

Jack looked at Rose. “Did you tell him?”

She nodded, and instantly her eyes filled with tears again.

“Oh, stop crying... Please?” Jack begged, drawing her into a hug. “Think I can guess, but how did he react?”

“He's not talkin' to me, he wouldn't let me help him get dressed,” Rose croaked.

“Give him some time. He's probably needs time to take it in.”

Rose nodded. “I wish he'd hurry up, cos I need him, Jack.”

“I know,” Jack replied quietly. “He'll get there.”

The curtain opened again, with the UNIT guard pushing a wheelchair. Jack let go of Rose to push the wheelchair to the bed, picking up the Doctor and sitting him in it, just as the Time Lord came around again, blinking erratically.

“Welcome back,” Jack greeted.

“What happened?” the Doctor asked drowsily.

“You fainted.”

“Oh.”

“We're gonna take you back to the Tardis then Martha can decide what to do with you. Unit want us out.”

The Doctor nodded, running a hand through his hair. Rose reached out to take his hand, but he quickly put it under the sheets. Jack saw this, and offered Rose a small supportive smile. But it didn't help with what she felt inside as Jack wheeled him towards the door.

* * *

“Daddy!” Leah squealed happily twenty minutes later, running into the infirmary straight to her dad, who was sitting on a bed looking a bit tired holding an icepack to his head. He grinned at her as she climbed onto the bed to sit next to him, hugging him around the middle. “Did you hurt your head?”

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but Jack got there first. “Daddy fell and hit his head on the console. Apparently it's not the first time this has happened.”

“Slight trouble with the Rani...” the Doctor muttered redundantly.

Jack thought about that. “Brunette? Kinda hot?”

The Doctor shrugged. “The only thing I noticed about her was every time she was around I got knocked out and woke up on a table with her looming over me.”

“Sounds dodgy,” Jack said, pulling a face.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, putting down the icepack to hug Leah one-handed. “I hope you've been running the place while I was away.”

She giggled and kissed him on the cheek before hugging him again. “Don't do that again.”

“I'll try not to,” he assured her.

“Can I get my toys and play with you?” she asked.

“Not right now, Leah,” Martha suddenly said, appearing with a clipboard and pen in hand. “I need to run some tests on Daddy. You can play later, okay?”

“Okay,” Leah said.

“Go find Mummy, I think she's in the kitchen.”

“Okay,” Leah repeated, giving her dad a final kiss and a hug before jumping off of the bed and running out of the door.

“She's back to normal,” Jack noted aloud, but it was inside he wished it were the same for the rest of the family. “Eh, Doc?” he said, turning to the Time Lord, but he was unconscious again. “Martha, he's gone again,” he said, going to the Doctor.

“Why is he doing this?” Martha genuinely wondered. “He's got no infection, his blood's normal for him.”

“The Yukkila?” Jack proposed.

“Could be, but I think that went with the healing coma. It's like narcolepsy. His legs went in the console room earlier, I don't think he fell asleep, he just whacked his head on the way down. That could be a sign of cataplexy. He was really happy to see the Tardis, emotions can trigger a cataplexy attack.”

Jack suddenly had a horrible thought, his eyes widening. “What causes narcolepsy?”

Martha frowned. “It's a lack of orexin in the body. Orexin is the neurotransmitter that handles wakefulness, arousal and hunger, and a lack of that is usually caused by a bad auto-immune response where instead of fighting disease they fight healthy organs and tissue. They usually go for the areas of the brain that produces orexin.”

And instantly Jack knew what it was. “Thanks,” he said, and ran out the door.

* * *

Martha watched him go with a raised eyebrow, just as the Doctor came around again. She waved at him happily. “Morning. I hope this is just a phase you're going through with this Rip Van Winkle stuff.”

“I went again, didn't I?” he said, yawning slightly.

“Yes. Any idea what's causing it?” Martha asked.

The Doctor knew exactly what was causing it, but he had no desire to tell Martha. “Just a healing coma thing, Leah jerked me out of it and that's made everything a little, err... floopy.”

“Floopy,” Martha repeated.

“Yeah,” the Doctor replied casually. “Give it a few days.”

“Okay,” Martha replied, nodding. “Let's have a look at your arm.”

She pulled a bed table in front of him, making sure he had enough pillows to prop him up in case he had another sleep attack.

“Here we go,” Martha began, placing his arm gently on the table. He winced slightly. “How do nerves work in the arms on a Time Lord?”

“We have two,” the Doctor told her. “Sort of act like the medial and ulnar nerves in controlling the fingers, but also do the job of the radial nerve. They run along the bone, protected by a layer of fat to make them hard to damage.”

“Let's see what you've damaged, then,” Martha said. “Let's go for the right side, first.”

The Doctor lifted his thumb, forefinger and middle finger slowly, his teeth gritted. He bent them, then straightened them, then put them back down again.

“Ow,” he muttered.

“How about the left?”

He frowned, concentrated, and managed to lift his ring finger a tiny bit. But he didn't move his little finger. “Can't feel it.”

She touched his little finger, and he shook his head.

“Ulnar nerve,” Martha noted. “Mononeuropathy, then. Can you heal that?”

“Either fully or partially,” the Doctor replied. “Worst case scenario I won't get full feeling back in my little finger.”

“Ah, who needs it anyway,” Martha joked. “Just get some rest and...”

She trailed off as she realised he'd passed out. She sighed, gently moved his arm and pushed away the table before covering his legs with a blanket.

Twenty seconds later, Rose appeared in the infirmary doorway, looking in a bit of a mess. She'd looked like it for days, Martha noted. Something was going on. Rose, Jack and the Doctor all seemed to know, and it was something to do with Rose's collapse. But they didn't seem to want to tell her why, and it was probably none of her business anyway until they consulted her. So she smiled at Rose as warmly as she could.

“He's just had a sleep attack, he'll be awake in a bit,” she said, gesturing to the Doctor.

“Thanks,” Rose said as politely as she could, but Martha could tell she was struggling even on that.

“Rose... if there's anything you need to tell me...” she began.

“I'm fine,” Rose replied rather abruptly, but quickly checked herself. “Umm... sorry.”

“It's okay,” Martha assured her. “I'll leave you two alone.”

* * *

As Martha left out of the door, Rose was moving to the Doctor. She hated seeing him like this. She sat on the bed, taking his good hand. As if on cue he opened his eyes and saw her there, and instantly drew his hand away.

“What do you want?” he asked defensively.

“Jack told me about the narcolepsy.”

“So?”

She felt like she was going to cry. _Again_. “He figured out why. It's because of the miscarriage. IYour immune system doesn't understand what happened through the bond and it's tryin' to fight the cause when nothing's there.”

“... Oh,” the Doctor murmured, looking away. “... Yeah.”

“Look, I know you're hurtin', you're hurtin' like me and I... I just really need you right now, yeah? Please talk to me. I love you.”

“I need some air,” he muttered, getting out of bed and staggering like a drunk towards the door.

Rose sighed, falling back to lie on the bed infused with his warmth. She missed it. She missed him.

* * *

The Doctor took the TARDIS back to Torchwood, which was quite a feat in itself as he fell asleep halfway through. Despite Martha's protests he practically shoved her out of the door and nearly did the same with Jack too, but Jack knew it would be utter emotional carnage if he left them right now. So he fought his corner until the Doctor finally relented, and they had taken off without Martha to hover in the vortex.

Rose had already gone through her obligatory daily box of tissues by 5pm, so Jack had fetched a new box for her before getting dinner sorted. But the Doctor didn't come when he called. In fact, Jack hadn't seen him since that morning. So he left the kitchen to search for the erratic Time Lord.

It had taken an hour, but eventually Jack strode into an area he'd never been to before – the Botanical Garden. It was a beautiful place, absolutely filled with weird alien plants, cascading waterfalls and bubbly rivers under an array of bizarre bridges. And there was the Doctor, lying in a patch of grass in a bed of flowers staring up. One hand was behind his head, and his plastered arm was rested on his chest.

“Hey, Doc,” Jack began, sitting down next to him. “How you doing?”

“Fine,” the Doctor muttered. He didn't sound fine.

“I got dinner ready for you.”

“Not hungry.”

“Figures,” Jack breathed, blowing out his cheeks and looking around again. “Y'know, I've never been in here before,” he began, trying to get the Doctor into a conversation. “Are you in here a lot?”

The Doctor side-glanced at him, then looked back up at the ceiling. “Me and Rose used to just lie here for hours talking, and staring up.”

Jack, for the first time, looked up. The ceiling wasn't a ceiling – it was some kind of mirage of the solar system; absolutely beautiful as comets passed and stars collided in a kaleidoscope of colour and magnificence right above his head. He had to take a sharp intake of breath at the pure beauty of it.

After a moment he looked back at the Doctor, still lying there looking at the view above them. “What did you and Rose talk about here?”

“Me. Her. Things in our life we'd been through. I told her about the Time War in here. She listened so hard...”

He trailed off and closed his eyes for a long moment, before opening them again to continue looking up.

Jack thought his eyes could be wet. He couldn't really tell. He decided to try and lighten the mood. “So, where'd you two have sex in here?”

“Shut up,” the Doctor shot back like a bullet, utterly serious.

“Sorry,” Jack said quickly. “But she needs you right now, and I reckon you need her too.”

“I'm fine.”

“You're really not. Please, just talk to her,” Jack begged.

“I've got nothing to say.”

“Do you actually _blame_ her?”

“Of course I don't,” the Doctor grated in return.

“Then what's your problem?” Jack genuinely wondered.

“You're my problem,” the Doctor snapped back. “Go away.”

“You can't just block us out, Doctor. It doesn't work that way.”

“I thought I told you to go away.”

Jack sighed, getting to his feet. “Okay, I'm going. But please, Doc, if you feel like you can't talk to Rose right now, talk to me. I'll listen.” Jack paused for a moment. No reply. “... D'you need anything for your arm? Martha left some painkillers for you.”

“No.”

“Okay,” Jack muttered, turning. “We love you, Doctor. We all love you. You'll get through this. You always do.”

And then he left.

 

 


	23. Tears of a Time Lord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both distraught, the Doctor and Rose have a major falling out over the miscarriage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've gotta attached a bit of a forewarning to this chapter - it deals with some very human emotions and issues in the form of miscarriage, including the Doctor and Rose absolutely ripping into each other. I've had people before react badly to the Doctor and Rose with this much resentment for each other so thought I'd warn you - there is a hell of a lot of arguing and proper emotion in this chapter.
> 
> I've never really liked the romanticised idea that as soon as the Doctor and Rose get together they're just going to handle anything life throws at them with ease. When I wrote this three years ago, I interpreted the Doctor as still very much an alien. It's massively unlikely to me that he's ever had to deal with this type of trauma before, and why is there any reason for him to be all supportive and a rock for Rose to lean on? He's not perfect, he's flawed, and now having to deal with a very human tragedy that - the way I saw it - he wasn't going to handle well.
> 
> Just because it's DW doesn't make them less susceptible to real life things, and the thing about fanfic that constantly inspires me is that it lets you take them to places they wouldn't normally go. I just wanted to make the characters still seem really in-character despite their situation whilst dealing with a highly-sensitive topic matter that maybe is uncommon in fanfic, and I really hope I accomplished that :)

“Daddyyy...” Leah began in a voice that signalled an impending question.

“Yeeeees?” the Doctor answered in exactly the same tone of voice.

“You know granny...”

“Yes, I know granny...”

“Don't I have a g’anddad?”

The Doctor pulled a face at that one. “It's, err... a complicated situation.”

“Why?”

“Well... Your granny's husband, Granddad Pete... Well in this universe he had an accident and he died when mum was just a baby. But then we went to a parallel world where Granddad Pete was still alive. Granny, err... fell in love with him all over again and now they're together on that parallel world. Which is why Granny only comes through on the monitor.”

“Oh, mmkay,” Leah answered, and continued drawing. Then stopped. “Daddyyy...”

“Yeeeees?”

“Don't you have a mummy and daddy?”

He sighed at that. “No, not anymore.”

“Why?”

“They both died.”

“When you were a baby?”

“No, I was all grown up by then.”

“Did they know ‘bout me?”

“No. But they would've loved you.”

“Okay.” She resumed colouring. And stopped again. “Daddyyy...”

“Yeeeees?”

“What did they look like?”

“Well, Granny...” he began, but trailed off and fell sideways, fast asleep.

Leah sighed, poking his face with her felt tip pen. “Daddy, wake up.”

Leah, Rose and Jack had kept finding the Doctor asleep in the strangest places over the past two days. He'd been found on the corridor floor too many times to count, and one time Jack had even found him with his head in a bowl of food, asleep at the kitchen table. Everyone was taking it in their stride now and finding it quite funny. But the narcolepsy seemed to be wearing off now. At least physically they were healing after the miscarriage.

But he still wasn't talking to Rose. He wasn't going to their bed. He wouldn't even eat with her, no matter how much Jack tried to convince him. He was closed off to everyone but Leah.

“Bedtime!” a voice announced from the doorway, and Leah looked up to see her Uncle Jack standing there. He saw the Doctor and rolled his eyes. “Daddy's gone again, huh? First time today,” he said, kneeling next to the Time Lord whose face was covered in green felt tip marks. “Oi, Daddy.”

The Doctor opened his eyes, frowning. “Hello,” he said to Jack, struggling to sit up.

“You've err, got a little something,” Jack said, gesturing to his face.

The Doctor wiped his cheek. “Did I get it?” he asked, still covered in green felt tip. Leah giggled loudly.

“Err... find a mirror. And before you do, it's Leah's bedtime so say good night.”

“Hug me,” the Doctor instructed the girl, who got up to run forwards and hug him tightly. He held her close, kissing her and not letting go. A good minute passed.

“Daddy,” Leah muttered from his chest.

“Oh, I'm never letting go,” he said, kissing her again. “I love you.”

“I love you too but I can't breathe, Daddy,” she whined, and the Doctor obediently eased his grip.

“Sorry,” he said, giving her one last kiss and a squeeze hug before finally letting go. “How about a bedtime story?”

“No, your dinner's in the kitchen,” Jack told him, picking up the toddler.

“That's okay, I'm not hungry.”

Jack put Leah down on the bed, looking over his shoulder with his eyes narrowed. “Just eat it, will you?” he said seriously, before turning back to Leah to help her get changed for bed.

The Doctor sighed. “Night, Leah.”

“Night night,” she replied over Jack's shoulder as the Time Lord left.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Rose walked into the kitchen to find the Doctor having just finished his dinner. He instantly looked up, saw her and made for the door, but Rose's voice was enough to stop him dead in his tracks.

“Please, stop,” she muttered, her voice heartbroken and raw.

He stopped, turning back to her. She was crying. She was always crying, now. The bond was screaming to do something about it but he just couldn't allow himself to.

“Please, just hug me,” she begged.

He gazed at her, standing there so broken. “I'm sorry,” he murmured, and turned to leave again.

“Why?!” Rose suddenly yelled, her fists clenched. “Why are you doin' this?!”

The Doctor didn't answer, still going to the door. Rose launched out to grab his arm, yanking him back around, absolutely furious.

“Fuckin' _talk_ to me!” she screamed, and slapped him right across the face.  The Doctor was completely stunned for a moment, staring at her in bewilderment.

Her face quickly dropped and she pounced forward to hug him. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just...”

“Get off of me,” the Doctor grated, pushing her away. He was angry, now. “Don't touch me.”

And within a second Rose was angry again too. “Why are you bein' like this?!”

Without a word, he turned and started to the door once more. Rose grabbed his arm again and yanked him back. “You can't just deny this, Doctor! You can't just run from everythin'!”

“Let go of me!” he yelled, yanking his arm out of her grip.

“Fine!” she screamed back. “I thought I knew you, I had you down as so many things but _coward_ wasn't one of them!”

“I'm not a coward!”

“You weren't before now, but I don't even know you anymore!” she yelled. “Just _talk_ to me!”

He turned again.

“Go on, run away from me, then!” she shouted, absolutely red in the face. “Leave me and Leah here!”

He spun back around in a second, furious with his finger in the air. “I'm having Leah and the Tardis is _mine!”_

“You are _not_ havin' Leah!”

“Yes, I am! If you want to leave, then leave!”

“Fuck you, you heartless bastard!” she screamed, turned and ran out of the door.

“Who's running now?!” the Doctor yelled after her, but there was no reply.

The other door opened and Jack was standing there, obviously very angry.

“You were _fucking lucky_ Leah couldn't make out what you were saying!” he yelled, slamming the door. “What the hell has happened to you?!”

“Humans happened!” the Doctor screamed back. “I was better off without you!” He made for the door.

In a flash Jack was next to him, grabbing him and pinning him against the wall. The Doctor cried out with agony shooting through his arm, but Jack ignored it.

“Now you listen to me,” Jack grated, his eyes dark and threatening with their noses inches apart. “I don't know who the _hell_ you think you are but you've got a beautiful family who you are single-handedly tearing apart because you just can't handle the fact Rose lost a baby. Well I'm gonna sort this for you. We are going to talk to Rose in a calm and collected way and I swear if you don't do as I say I'm gonna make your life hell. Got it?”

“Get away from me!” the Doctor yelled, pushing Jack away with his good arm. Jack grabbed it, and then grabbed his bad arm. The Doctor shrieked with pain, but Jack didn't let go.

“Don't you even _dare_ ,” Jack grated. “Don't you fucking _dare_.”

“Please let go,” the Doctor begged through gasps of pain.

“I can do a lot worse than this,” Jack replied, not letting go.  “Come with me.”

Jack pulled him by his bad arm towards the door, and Doctor had to keep up to stop his arm exploding with pain. Jack took him down the corridor and into the lounge where Rose was lying on the sofa, crying her eyes out.

“Rose,” Jack called gently. “Sit up.”

She looked up, and saw the Doctor. Her face turned instantly. “Get him the hell out!”

“No,” Jack answered sharply. “You two need to talk.”

He forced the Doctor to sit on the sofa next to Rose before standing over them with his arms folded expectantly. There was a long pause.

Jack sighed. “Rose, tell him how you feel.”

“He knows how I feel,” Rose muttered, staring the other way.

“Say it again.”

“I don't wanna talk about it! Not to him!” she yelled and made to get up, but Jack dived forward to grab the Doctor's arm.

The ensuing shriek of pain stopped Rose dead in her tracks, quickly rushing over to stop Jack. “What the hell are you doin'?!” she yelped, but to her surprise Jack just smiled and casually let go.

“There, you still care about him.”

“Of _course_ I still care about him,” Rose replied, dropping back down onto the sofa with her head in her hands. “I still love him.”

“Talk to him, not to me,” Jack instructed.

She looked at the Doctor, who was looking at the floor.  “I... I want this feelin’ to stop. I want you back, Doctor. I want things back to how they were.”

“Good,” Jack said. “Now how can we fix this?”

Rose looked at the Doctor again. He was looking at her in return, now. “I... want another baby.”

The Doctor turned instantly, his eyes narrowing. “No.”

“Why not?” Rose wanted to know.

“Not now, not after last time.”

“Doctor, it's been over two _years_!”

“I'm not ready, I don’t want another now!” the Doctor yelled back.

“But I do!”

“Well you’re not getting one from me!” the Doctor screamed, on his feet.

“How can you be so selfish?!” Rose screamed. “Can’t you even think about what _I_ want?!”

“This is about both of us, not just you!” the Doctor yelled back.

“Well I feel fuckin’ awful!”

“Don’t you think I do too?!”

“Doctor, our baby got _murdered_!”

Suddenly everything went very quiet. No one had said it before now. But it was very real. Their baby _had_ been murdered, murdered before it even had a chance to breathe. Murdered by the creatures.

“Doctor, Rose,” Jack said suddenly and gently, taking their hands in each of his own. “Please stop arguing.”

The Doctor swallowed, dropping back to sit down. He looked at Rose crying again. “Do you really want another baby?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah... No... Oh, I dunno!” Rose replied, gasping through her sobs. “I didn't but I do but I know I don't and it doesn't make any sense!”

“No, it doesn't,” the Doctor agreed.

“There's like... I think I feel guilty.”

“What do you mean by that exactly?” the Doctor wondered seriously.

“You know what I mean!” Rose said in a clipped tone. “Even though we didn't know about it, I just... I couldn't protect it, yeah? I couldn't feel it. I thought I'd feel it, but I couldn't. And I couldn't protect it from the creature. It died inside me and it's like it was all my fault.”

“Don't be stupid,” the Doctor spat. “How can it have possibly been your fault? It's biology!”

“Shut the hell up about your science stuff!” Rose yelled back, in tears again. “You haven't even cried! You can't feel this!”

“Just because I haven't cried doesn't mean I can't feel it!” the Doctor yelled back.

“Yeah, you and your bloody alien ways!”

“Oh, so we're back on that now! Would you prefer a human? How about you just leave me and Leah and get with Mickey again if you want your perfect human family!?”

“Don't be a dick about this! You _know_ what I meant!”

“Err, no I don't, enlighten me?”

“Doctor, I need you to be human for this! I need you to cry!”

_“Why?!”_

“So I know you can feel it!”

“Doctor! Rose!” Jack interrupted again. “Just _please_ stop arguing, all right? I don't like it. This isn’t like you two. You love each other. Just stop, please... stop.”

They both fell silent for quite a while, just gazing at each other.

The Doctor was the first one to break the silence. “I know I don't want another yet but... Oh, Rose,” he breathed, head bowed, hands clasped together. “I can't do it, not yet. I really can't. Eventually, yes, but not now – not after last time. I’m sorry.”

“I know,” she said with a sniff, pulling him into a hug.

“I _do_ feel it, I really do,” he croaked.

“I know,” she repeated, running a hand through his hair.

“I need to cry, but I've just... I've just been angry. It's... It's scaring me. I'm scared I don't understand. I've never felt this bad before. Everything's wrong, everything's hurting. And... today I was looking at Leah, she was smiling and and I just thought... What if she never happened? Then I think about the baby and how it could've been another one just like Leah and now... Now it's not ever going to be. It's gone forever, and we'll never even know. I almost want to... to replace it with another child... I feel like we _have_ to fill this gap. But I know I don't want to. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does,” she told him gently. “That's what I feel like.”

“It just feels like a bit of me has...”

“Died?”

“Yeah.”

“A bit you didn't even know existed?”

“Yeah...”

“... It's really okay to cry.”

He closed his eyes, and his shoulders began to shake before finally the building tears erupted, and he began to cry. Rose held him tightly, kissing him through the tears before she joined him in the shared grief. Jack moved in to hug them both, letting them just expel their emotions.

When it was over they all took a step back from each other, tears still lingering in their eyes.

“We can get through this, yeah?” Rose said, as if trying to convince everyone in the room as well as herself. “I still love you.”

The Doctor didn't answer that.

“Doctor?” she prompted. “We can get through this, right?”

His eyes were filling up again. “Oh, Rose, I hate this.”

“What?”

“... I... I don't think I love you anymore.”

Jack and Rose stared at him in absolute horror.

“What?” Jack croaked. “No, no. You love her, Doctor. You're meant to be together.”

Rose was crying again, and the Doctor took her into a tight embrace, yet more tears erupting from his eyes.

“What?” she croaked, looking up to run her thumb over his lips. “Please... Please just think. Really think. Do you really not love me anymore?”

The Doctor swallowed, looking away to the ground. “I... I don't know.” He groaned, head in hand. “But... yeah, I still love you, but I don't think I can anymore... We've still got Leah and I still care for you but I just can't... I can't do this anymore. It's not working. But it's okay, you can still live here, you're still Leah's mum and we're still bonded, but we just won't... Well it won't be like before.”

“So we'd live... like friends?”

“Best friends. But nothing else. I don't mind if you want to find someone else.”

“I can't live like that,” Rose sobbed, holding his face in both her hands with tears everywhere. “I can't... I can't live without you. Please stay with me. I don't want anyone else, it's only ever been you...”

“I can't,” the Doctor choked.

“I'm not hearing this!” Jack yelled, suddenly angry. “You're both just confused and grieving, you love each other, _please_ don't do this!”

Everything fell quiet again, emotions running high.

“Doctor,” Jack began after he'd calmed down a little. “We can work at this. We can get through this. Why can't you do it anymore?”

The Doctor was crying again. “I thought I could do it, I thought I could be with you, Rose. I thought nothing human could surprise me, I thought I could handle anything. I've read all these books on humans and I read about miscarriage and I thought it was just a thing that happened, a biological thing that didn't really matter but it's not, it's just not,” he sobbed. “I don't understand these feelings I'm having. I don't understand humans like I thought I did. I'm an alien, I'm not ready to be in this relationship... You're right, I'm running. I'm running because I'm scared. You deserve someone better. I'm so sorry.”

“I don't care you're alien, and I know it's hard for you to understand us,” Rose told him, cupping his cheek. “Really, I don't care if you can't understand the feelings, I just want you. I love you. I'll help you.”

“What about the next time?” the Doctor croaked out. “What about when the next thing comes and I don't understand it? I'm better off alone. I'm only making you unhappy.”

“You're not,” Jack told him seriously sitting down now and holding his hand. “You've been so happy with Rose and Leah. I've never seen you so happy. I've never seen Rose so happy. Don't throw it all away. Please.”

There was another long silence.

“Are we not strong enough to get through this?” Rose wondered quietly.

“You are. You can take this, you can heal. But me...” the Doctor trailed off.

“I think you can,” Jack told him. “You can do it. It'll take time, though, and the problem is... you have Leah to look after.”

“She's number one,” the Doctor muttered, nodding. “I don't want to have so much going on in my life that she becomes second. I don't... I don't want to hurt her because I can't cope with this, and I'm just... I'm so angry. I can't take that out on her and I know that's what I'll end up doing because... Because I've been ignoring you, Rose, I've been shutting myself off and I haven't wanted to think about you and how you feel because I've been thinking that I'm the most important. Like... Like after the first time, after the War. After they died then. I... I just don't want to go back there. I don't want be my father. I can't do that to Leah and I can't do that to you.”

She held him again. It was the first time he'd said anything about his parents to her. Things were definitely serious.

“We can’t go on like this,” she said quietly. “We can't get through this.”

“No,” the Doctor agreed in a murmur.

“... What the hell are we gonna do, Doctor?”

The Doctor swallowed, and then looked at Jack. “Retcon.”

“What?” Jack asked, caught off guard.

“Retcon me.”

“You mean… Erase your memory?” Rose wondered, eyes wide.

“Yes,” the Doctor confirmed. “I can erase yours, Rose, but for mine I need some help.”

“It’ll have to be a really strong dose,” Jack warned quietly. “We’ll be erasing days.”

“Do what you need to,” the Doctor fobbed off.

“Do you want to erase mine too?”

The Doctor glanced at Rose, and they both nodded.

“Are you really sure about this?” Jack asked carefully. “There's no going back.”

“I can't live like this,” Rose murmured. “I can't keep arguing with you, Doctor. And I can't just be a friend like before. I love you so much.”

She started crying again, so he held her even tighter.

He looked at Jack, looking like he was about to cry too. “Jack, get it now. We need to do this now.”

Jack nodded. “What about Leah?”

“We'll drop her off with Torchwood and do this in the vortex. And we'll write a note to ourselves for a fail-safe and I'll write up what happened in the Tardis database in case something goes wrong. Get your Retcon, double dosage for me.”

Jack nodded, and the Doctor abruptly sagged in Rose's arms. She lifted his head and saw he'd had another sleep attack; tear tracks still staining his face. It was tearing her apart to know that his own body was attacking itself because  of what had happened to her, even though the resultant effect it seemed so minor.

“Oh god,” she whispered, holding his limp body to her and kissing him for reassurance. “This isn't fair. It's just not fair, Jack.”

“It'll be okay,” Jack tried to assure her, wiping under the Doctor's eyes with his thumb. The tears of a Time Lord. “Everything will be fine.”

“I really hope so,” she croaked, still holding the Doctor. “Cos I... I just can't live without him.”  



	24. Collapsious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having wiped their memories, the Doctor, Rose and Jack return to Torchwood.

The Doctor woke up, feeling a little groggy.

His head was a complete mess, random thoughts flying at him ranging from “the creature?!” to, “did I leave the tap running?”. It took him a few moments to gather his head together until he opened his eyes to have a look at where he was.

He was in the TARDIS infirmary, lying dressed in a t-shirt and pyjama trousers, his right arm in a full plaster cast. He frowned and tried to move it, but it absolutely exploded with pain and he cried out, vowing not to do that again. What the hell had happened to it?

He caught sight of someone else lying on the next bed. It was Jack, unconscious with a few tubes going in and out of him. A look to the other side and he saw Rose, also with the same tubes going in and out. Then he finally realised he had some too. He checked the lines – a drainage tube and a feeding tube. That would only be necessary if he'd been asleep for at _least_ a few days...

He disconnected himself, but his body was incredibly stiff so he took a few moments to flex his muscles and bend his joints. By the time he was satisfied, there was a small sigh from the right where Rose was, and he got up to go to her just as she opened her eyes.

“Hello,” he said.

She looked confused, staring at his arm in plaster. “What happened to your arm? Wait a sec. What happened to me?”

“I was hoping you'd know, cos I haven't got the foggiest,” he confessed, looking at his arm. “It bloody hurts, though. What's the last thing you remember?”

She frowned, eyebrows lowering. “Umm... stepping into the teleport with you.”

“Same,” the Doctor muttered, getting the tubes out of her. “Jack's here too.”

Rose looked over at the other bed, where Jack was stirring. He grunted, pushed himself to sit up and saw them.

“Err...” he began, evidently as puzzled as they were. He saw their expressions. “You don't know either, huh?” he wondered vaguely.

The Doctor shook his head. “What do you remember last?”

“I was in the spaceship with the creatures, in a cell with Leah...”

Suddenly they all jerked to attention with eyes wide.

“Leah!” the Doctor realised, looking around in a panic. “Leah?!” he yelled a little louder, listening for a reply, but there was none. He made to the door to check through the TARDIS but to his complete surprise he found the door locked, an envelope pinned to the front.

 **LEAH IS SAFE** were the words circled on the front, and below were written the words **To the Doctor, Rose and Jack.**

Instantly the Doctor relaxed a little, because he recognised the writing.

“This is my writing,” he told the other two, holding the envelope up.

They were both standing up now, working the cricks out of their necks. The Doctor went back to them, sitting on the middle bed where he'd woken up. He instinctively tried to open the envelope but his arm quickly reminded him that was a silly idea and Rose whipped it out of his hand, glaring at him for doing that.

She opened the envelope and gave the enclosed letter back to the Doctor to read out loud.

“Dear the Doctor, Rose and Jack. When you read this, you will no longer remember. We have purposely erased our memories of something that happened to us, and this is the fail-safe. I have written all the details down of what happened in a log in the Tardis database and locked it with the password 'AmbiaFive'.

“You should have your memories erased back to just before the encounter with the creatures, so your memory and reality will be a bit confusing. The creatures are now gone, Leah has recovered and we have left the hospital. Martha struck a deal with Unit for them to leave us alone, but they probably won't be happy to see you again if you go back. Unfortunately for you, Doctor, your arm was caught in the cheap teleport and it nearly got taken right off near the shoulder, and you've damaged your ulnar nerve. Also the same arm was given a hairline fracture in a fight. You've probably found this out already, but don't move it. It hurts.

“We left Leah safely at Torchwood with Martha, Gwen, Ianto and Mickey on the 5th March saying we had some business to attend to, and we erased our memories whilst hovering in the vortex. I think Martha has figured out something's going on so you may have to cover for any questions. We don't want anyone else to know anything about it.

“Nobody knows about what happened to Rose and I apart from us three, and we all agreed to erase our memories completely of the days since. I erased Rose and Jack's memory and put you two in a three day trance, while I took a strong dose of Retcon. You should all wake up at roughly the same time. Rose, Jack, if you are awake and reading this and I'm not then the Retcon may have affected me badly and I've left additional medical instructions on a piece of paper next to my bed.

“We know this is the coward's way out but it was tearing us apart and making Rose and I very unhappy. We couldn't face the arguments and the anger and guilt every day, we hated each other and this is how we are fixing it. Looking at the file is up to you, but we'd rather you didn't.

“The code for the door is 64732BQ8. From the Doctor, Rose and Jack. PS, Doctor, please tell Rose you love her.”

Below that was each of their signatures.

The Doctor looked up at Jack and Rose, standing there staring at the piece of paper. He looked at Rose, reached up and cupped her cheek.

“I love you so much,” he told her simply, honestly.

“I know,” she said, putting her arm around him and kissing him. “I love you too.”

“This must've been something really bad that happened,” Jack muttered.

“Wonder what it was?” Rose wondered.

“Well, I'm not looking at the file,” Jack said.

“No,” the Doctor agreed. “Erasing my own memory... I've never done that. I can't imagine myself even considering it, so whatever it was... It was really not good.”

“How about we just delete the file and never read it, yeah?” Rose proposed. “Just get rid of it.”

The Doctor looked between them. “All in favour?” he queried.

All three raised their hands simultaneously.

“Motion carried,” the Doctor said, scrunching up the piece of paper and throwing it, the envelope and the medical instructions into the incinerator bin. With one short, dull flash, and it was all scattered into oblivion.

The Doctor stopped, frowning. “Wait, what was the code for the door on that letter, again?”

Rose's jaw dropped. “What?!” she gasped.

The Doctor looked at her, his eyes wide. “The code for the door, I didn't memorise it!”

“But... Can't we unlock it? Where's your sonic?” Rose asked quickly.

“It's a double deadlock... Quarantine mode.”

“We're stuck in here?” Jack asked, panicked.

“Yeah... We're gonna have to guess it...” the Doctor said, jogging to the door with Jack and Rose in close tow.

“Is that gonna work?” Rose asked anxiously.

“Well we don't have much of a choice!” the Doctor pointed out. His hand hovered above the keypad for a moment, before hammering in a combination. With a polite beep, a click and a whoosh, the door slid open.

He looked back at them, and snorted with laughter. “Oh, you should've seen your faces.”

“You...” Rose laughed after the shock had evaporated, shoving him lightly.

“Ow!” he complained indignantly.

“I'm not sorry,” she said, still laughing.

“It's like being with two big kids,” Jack sighed, pushing them out of the door.

* * *

They got back to Torchwood to be met by Martha outside the TARDIS door, looking quite solemn, at least until she saw their grins and smiles and instead became very confused.

“Umm... Are you all okay?” she asked, looking at Rose. “Rose, are you okay?”

“Sure, why wouldn't I-oof!” she exclaimed as the Doctor elbow her in the ribs. “What?!”

“You were ill, remember?” he told her pointedly, his eyes wide. “You collapsed.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rose muttered, rubbing the side of her face awkwardly.

“Poor thing, can't remember any of it,” the Doctor said quickly, patting Rose patronisingly on the head. “Amnesia, the crippling symptom.”

“All very sad,” Jack added, patting her as well. Rose glared at them both.

Martha's frown deepened. “So what was it?”

“... Sorry, what?” the Doctor asked.

“The illness,” Martha clarified. “What was it?”

“Oh! The illness! I thought you meant... Well, something else. Didn't you, Jack?” the Doctor said, looking at the Captain.

“Funny how questions can confuse you like that,” Jack agreed.

There was a slight pause.

“So, what was it?” Martha asked again, clearly a little concerned now.

“The illness?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, well, it was...” the Doctor began, looking at Jack and Rose.

“Collapsious!” Rose burst out quickly.

“... Collapsious,” Martha repeated slowly.

“Yeah. It makes you, umm... collapse.”

“Awful disease,” Jack said sadly, shaking his head.

“Terrible,” the Doctor added.

Martha suddenly laughed, pointing at them. “Are you messing about with me?”

The three looked between each other for a second, wondering what to do.

“Oh, you got us!” Jack suddenly exclaimed, laughing. “There's no such thing as collapsious!”

“Yeah, what a _stupid_ name for a disease,” the Doctor agreed, staring at Rose.

“Don't look at me,” she protested. “I'm crippled with amnesia.”

Martha looked instantly panicked. “Are you still ill?”

“Oh, no!” Rose said quickly. “The Doctor fixed it.”

“Yep, all fixed!” the Doctor enthused, beaming.

“Absolutely nothing wrong now,” Jack added with a smile.

Martha stared at them. “But...”

“Oh, is that a beeping computer?” the Doctor asked suddenly, looking across the Hub to where Leah and Mickey were fighting over a keyboard. “I love a beeping computer. Excuse me.”

He ran off.

Martha looked back at Jack, who instantly looked very solemn. “He's a bit emotional. Bit scattered. His head's not really in the right place, if you know what I mean. Poor guy. I found him in his underwear crying in the bathroom the other day, begging the toilet to flush.”

Martha's eyes widened. “Really? Oh.”

“Not to mention his addiction.”

“Addiction?!” Martha gasped.

“Yeah,” Jack continued, feeling Rose staring at him. “He was addicted to figs. It became his comfort food. And, well... you can imagine the effect.”

Martha's hand went over her mouth, shocked. “That's terrible.”

“But, you know, best not to mention it to him,” Jack said quietly, looking over at the Doctor across the Hub. “He's over it now, but those were some dark times. You should probably tell the others. We don't want anyone offering him figs.”

“Oh, of course,” Martha said quickly.

“Unbelievable,” Rose sighed, hand on her head.

“Oh, you feeling a little light-headed again, Rose?” Jack said quickly. “How about you sit down for a minute? This way...”

He took hold of her as though he were guiding a frail old woman, leading her to the sofa away from Martha. Rose was glaring at him.

“What?” he protested. “A bit of humiliation'll do his ego good.”

Rose thought about that. “You're right,” she conceded, just as the Doctor came back to them, holding Leah.

“I was thinking, we should go out, grab some chips and...” he trailed off as he noticed Martha staring at him sadly from across the Hub. The moment she saw him noticing her she smiled and looked away.

The Doctor frowned a little, then shrugged and turned back to them. “So, chip shop chips?”

“Yes,” Leah said instantly.

“Yes, your highness,” the Doctor said, kissing her, just as the tinny sound of a mobile phone began from somewhere near Jack. He scrambled around his pockets. “Sorry, me,” he said, pulling it out and answering. “Hello? … Speaking... What about him?... Oh... What?... Okay... I'll pass it on. Thanks... Bye.”

He hung up, looking up at the Doctor with wide eyes. “You know Dr Johnston?”

“They fired him?” the Doctor wondered hopefully.

“Err... Well, he hadn't been into work for a week, the day after we left, and no one could get hold of him. The cleaner was going over his office and she opened the cupboard... She found him dead. And according to the autopsy, he'd been dead for a month.”

Rose's eyes widened, looking at Jack and the Doctor in turn. “Was someone... impersonating him?”

The Doctor paused, before nodding slowly. “... Must've been.”

“Someone was there for us,” she realised.

The Doctor nodded again. “Probably making the kids sick for the creatures... Looks like we've got ourselves an enemy.”

There was a short pause.

“Chips?” Leah prompted, seemingly uncaring of the potential danger.

“Chips,” the Doctor agreed, tearing away from his thought trail to put Leah on the floor and take his partner's hand, and together they all went to get some chips.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! Have no fear, the miscarriage will come back to haunt them ;) Thanks for reading!
> 
> Continued in "The Debt" :D


End file.
